


Homunculus

by kelseachan



Series: Homunculus [1]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Adventure, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, CanonxOC, Comedy, Drama, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, OCs - Freeform, Science Fiction, Slow Burn, Vye (OC)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24910252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelseachan/pseuds/kelseachan
Summary: When a division of the ominous Galactic Federation suddenly arrive on Earth, the turtles and their friends find themselves thrust on a journey to Space Court while accused of harbouring illegal alien matter. They must do their best to get home, but little do they know a trial is just the beginning…
Series: Homunculus [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802524
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. The Trial

**Author's Note:**

> The 'Galactic Federation' is not to be confused with 'The Federation'. They are separate.  
> This series is set in the 2003 universe and after the events of Season 3 Episode 23 but before episode 24 onwards. Because of this it's mostly Canon-Divergent but still carries canon elements along through it that may differ in certain ways.

It was another casual day in the sewers of New York City. The sound of footsteps hitting hard against the pavement echoed through the underground tunnels, having lost their volume as they eventually reached the lair that gave solitude to a group of unlikely fighters for justice. Having not long finished a training session with their Master, the four turtle brothers had separated themselves around the base; each cooling off by engaging in personal activities. Leonardo perched himself on one of the higher level beams, soothing himself with deep meditation. There was a definite testament to Master Splinter’s training, as not even the piercing sounds of Michelangelo screaming at his video games or the repetitive pounding of Raphael slamming his fists into a battered punching bag could penetrate the placid aura surrounding the level-headed leader. Donatello sat not too far from his button-mashing brother, reading a tattered magazine he had managed to scrounge off the streets above. It may have been an out of date issue, but it was certainly a refreshing read on the world of robotics and recent endeavours in the world of technology – there was always something to be learned, whether it was a new discovery or an old one.

Klunk, their not long adopted stray cat, trotted innocently up to Michelangelo’s feet and brushed his scruffy ginger coat against the turtle’s legs. Mikey let out a chuckle as he took a free hand off his control-pad to lift the small critter onto his lap.

“Do you want to play too, Klunk? Huh?”

The small cat let out a meek mew in response. Donatello lowered his _Technology Weekly_ onto his lap as he turned his head to look at the pair.

“Please don’t make the cat play the console, Mikey.”

“Aww, why not? It’s just a li’l fun! Right Klunk?” Michelangelo cooed as he stroked under Klunk’s fuzzy chin, causing the animal to purr contently.

Don shook his head before going back to his article.

“I meant, he’ll ruin the controller with his claws.” He turned a page. “That and I’m pretty sure animals aren’t too fond of being held up to game consoles against their will. Cats are pretty dominant creatures, y’know.”

Mikey’s lips turned into a pout.

“Sorry, Klunk. It’s probably just as well- I don’t think Raph would want all of his high scores to get beaten by a cat.”

“What was that?” Raphael growled as he threw another harsh blow at his exhausted punching bag.

The joker turtle grinned and tipped his head back to view his hot-tempered brother over the back of the sofa.

“You heard me, _noob_! Klunk could knock all your scores clean off the game!”

Raphael shifted his raised fist to point at Mikey from across the room.

“You better watch your mouth there, Mikey.”

Donatello sighed as he lowered his paper once again. It was evident the peace was soon to be broken and he would be unable to concentrate on his indulgence much longer. Raph marched over to the sofa as his brother continued to taunt him, soon bringing him into a headlock and forcing Klunk to swiftly hop off his comfortable spot and hide by the leg of Don’s seat.

As the two turtles began to wrestle, the noise of two doors sliding open were drowned out by the sheer volume of Raph and Mikey’s antics. Splinter walked out of his room, feeling the floor with his cane as he did so. Paying little attention to his bickering sons, he stopped in the middle of the room and rested one hand atop of the other that was already holding his stick. His eyes closed deep in thought. Leonardo, unable to keep his concentration much longer, opened one eye to peer down upon his family until his gaze fixed on the old rat.

“What’s wrong, Father?”

Feeling a sudden rush of concern, the boy leapt down from his perch and landed beside Splinter.

“Is everything alright?”

His adoptive father nodded his head.

“I am fine, Leonardo. Although…” He opened his eyes once again. “…I feel a presence approaching…”

The blue masked turtle frowned at his Master in concern, soon shifting his gaze up to the ceiling.

“A…presence…?”

Suddenly, a blinding light burst seemingly from nowhere and brought all the turtles to a standstill as they promptly shielded their vision. Splinter merely closed his eyes again, appearing un-phased by the mysterious orb forming within the middle of their home. As the glow began to diminish slightly, Leo moved his arm from his face just enough to make out two figures emerging from the blaze, making it apparent that this was some kind of portal that had accumulated itself into their lair somehow. Being wary, the turtle drew both his katana swords and took a fighting stance in front of Splinter. Once the light finally dimmed, his eyes widened at the recognition of the characters standing before him.

“U-Usagi? Gen?!”

The rabbit-like warrior turned his head to the bewildered turtle, a smile wiping across his face as he did so.

“Leonardo-san, my good friend.”

“What are you doing here?” He stopped in his tracks, observing the tufts of fur and scratched robes on his long-eared friend. “What happened to you-“

Usagi stopped Leonardo in his inquisition by holding up his hand and shaking his head. Leo took a step backwards as he was silenced, a sense of unease rousing within him.

“I am afraid we haven’t much time.” The young Samurai asserted. “We come to you this day with a grave warning.”

Each of the brothers exchanged concerned glances, Raphael and Michelangelo finally rising to their feet and dusting themselves off from their previous tussle. They all gathered around Usagi and Gennosuke, eagerly awaiting the tale of caution that they were about to receive.

“Our home world was attacked.” The rabbit began. “These...strange contraptions- ships, if you will – just appeared out of nowhere. I was unable to get a full glance at what was going on, as I was too busy trying to keep my comrades safe.”

A loud crunch abruptly filled the room, interrupting Usagi’s speech. They all turned to gaze upon Gen, who had without haste helped himself to one of Michelangelo’s left over bags of chips

“Hey! Those are mine!” Mikey fumed.

Splinter wavered his hand lightly.

“Hush, my son. Please, my friends, continue.”

Gennosuke walked back over to the group, chewing ferociously on his acquired snack.

“They claimed to be some sort of _‘galactic police’_.” The Rhino snorted. “Appeared to be looking for something.”

Usagi placed his hand on Leonardo’s shoulder, lowering his head.

“I do not know what these people are looking for, but there is a chance they may come to your planet as well. I thought it would be best to warn you. If I am wrong, then all I am is wrong…But if I’m not…”

Leonardo frowned and bowed his head to Usagi.

“Don’t worry, Usagi, we’ll be sure to keep on the look-out. Thank you for coming to tell us.”

A brief smile formed across Usagi’s lips as relief washed over him. Raphael folded his arms, seeming perplexed about the situation.

“What kind of police force just barges into places without askin’?”

Donatello scratched his chin in thought to his brother’s comment.

“It must’ve been something incredibly important, although it does seem odd that an organisation like that would be so rough when simply looking for something.”

“It is possible their intentions were not bad.” Usagi contributed. “But our world is not used to such an event happening. Our panic fused with theirs may have caused more of a travesty than on most other planets.”

Donatello nodded, but still did not seem entirely convinced. Usagi bowed to the group, soon turning on his heels as he began to speak once more.

“Now I must bid you farewell. Gennosuke and I need to return to our own world…to finish picking up the pieces.” He briefly looked over his shoulder. “I wish you luck.”

Before the sentiments could continue, the sound of the lair’s security system whooped throughout the entire hall. Everyone came to a standstill, looking amongst themselves until eventually fixating on Donatello, who had already made a dash towards his computer. The brothers followed not long after, Mikey grasping onto the back of Don’s seat.

“W-What is it?” He gulped.

Leonardo drew his katana, his gaze fixed on the main entrance.

“Is it them?”

“I’m not sure…” Don replied. “The bio-sensors aren’t able to pick up a proper signature for some reason…”

Raphael joined Leonardo in a fighting stance, twirling his Sai around as a confident smirk wept across his face.

“Well it ain’t like we haven’t had unwanted house guests before.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Raph.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Master Splinter tapped his cane on the ground to gain the attention of the hot-headed duo. The alarm had begun to fade away, allowing his voice to be heard more clearly.

“Raphael. Leonardo. Both of you will investigate the surface. The rest of us will wait here on-guard.”

“But-“

The rat pointed his cane up at his sword-wielding son’s chin.

“Go.”

There was a slight pause of hesitation before Leo bowed his head in obedience.

“Yes, Sensei.”

As the leader turned and made his way out of the lair, Raphael grumbled and placed his beloved Sai knives back into their holster around his waist, continuing after his brother shortly after.

It took them little time to reach the nearest manhole in the sewer tunnels. They had yet to encounter any potential enemies, but Leonardo remained alert, allowing Raphael to climb the ladder before him. The splashing sound of the murky, trash-filled stream below echoed through the passageways as usual. It would be easy for the turtles to become swayed into questioning the presence of danger at all in their current scene. This possibility was soon swept away as the two brothers drew closer to the surface. The muffled sounds of car alarms, shrieking, and crashing, made it all too evident that something was afoot in the world above, and after a signal from his comrade, Raphael carefully tipped up the manhole cover to peer out over the streets of New York. Figures ran from every direction, scattering across the streets like headless chickens. A large, what could only be considered as a spaceship, filled up half of the road, a series of crushed bins spread out underneath its metal belly. A small group of cloaked creatures surrounded the area, some of which were holding peculiar devices and trying to examine anything that appeared to be moving. One of the creatures was stood on a pedestal rising from the ship, speaking out of a megaphone words that could not be deciphered due to the screams of the local residents.

“Not exactly subtle, are they?”

Leonardo shifted his head from below to see if he could get a view of the scene from where he was positioned on the ladder. He called out to Raphael.

“What is it?”

“Some freakish lookin’ alien guys just went and parked their ship in the middle of the street. They’re shouting out a bunch’a stuff but I can’t make any of it out.” Raph furrowed his brow. “The idiots- do they have _space_ _dust_ fillin’ up those heads of theirs-?”

The red-masked turtle shifted to get out of the hole, only to be tugged back down by the foot. He grumbled and looked down at Leo, who shook his head.

“We need to go back to Master Splinter and the others. We’ll regroup, and then come back up to the surface to try and negotiate with these things. If that doesn’t work, _then_ we’ll take action.”

Raphael let out a frustrated sigh as he lowered the manhole cover and started to climb back down with his brother.

“I knew you were going to say that.”

The two ninja swiftly made their way back to the lair.

“Guys!” Leo beckoned. “There’s something happening up-top, we should-…”

His sentence trailed off as he was struck with the image laid before him. Their family and friends stood separated around the room, hands held up high as they had gun-like weapons poking their backs. The room had been taken over by another group of the aliens that created havoc on the streets above, only now their forms were easier to make out. They had red, rugged skin covered in long flowing white coats, and examined their surroundings with large cat-like eyes almost filling each side of their head. One of the creatures differed in appearance only by a pair of black goggles resting atop its head, and walked around the room with a small device in its slender hands, consumed in a search. Raphael fumed and drew his Sai, taking a step forward.

“What do you bozos think you’re doin’?!”

Leo growled and moved to pull out his katana alongside his brother, but was soon interrupted by the tip of an unknown weapon prodding at his neck. Raphael suffered the same fate, causing both turtles to come to a halt. The inspecting figure took little effort to look up from his device.

“Do not fret, residents. This should not take long.”

Donatello, now stood with Michelangelo in surrender, watched the mysterious individual curiously.

“Um…Sir? What exactly is it that you’re doing?”

“Yeah!” Raph barked. “And why have you and your weirdo friends just gone and set that spaceship of yours right in the middle of- Hey! Watch where you’re pokin’ that thing!”

The exasperated alien sighed, pressing buttons on his handheld contraption before leering over at Raphael and Leonardo.

“We are a specially selected collection squad belonging to the Federation of Universal Protection against Deadly Extra-Terrestrials.”

“So…’Foupadet’?” Mikey teased.

Don shot a glare at his clown for a brother and lightly slapped the back of his head.

“Oww!”

“Not the time, Mikey.”

Usagi frowned.

“A collection squad…?”

The alien nodded and continued to hold up his device to certain objects in the room as he carried on with his explanation.

“We have been given direct orders to examine each planet within a certain perimeter, and search for any unregistered life forms.”

Donatello, still confused, but also intrigued, contributed yet another question.

“What does _that_ mean?”

“It means-”

A sudden gasp from the alien caused him to stop in his tracks, and he pointed in front of him.

“What is that?”

He looked towards one of his colleagues, then back to his device, frantically pressing buttons. Klunk, who had previously hidden himself, walked out from behind the televisions and let out a light hiss. Mikey beamed.

“Heeyyy, Klunk! So that’s where you’d got to!”

Klunk mewed at him. The various guards and inspectors throughout the room shared whispers and gasps. One of these guards spoke in the device-holders’ ear.

“I haven’t heard of a ‘Klunk’, sir.”

Donatello blinked and looked at Klunk before looking back at the red-skinned duo.

“Uh, that’s actually a ca-”

Another more violent interruption occurred as the press of a button from the alien’s device caused an uproar within the room. Selected guards from around the hall began to restrain each of the turtles, along with their master and comrades, as the now distressed leader of the collection squad mumbled something into what must have been a headset installed into his goggles. After a slick gesture of his hand, the guard by his side thrust forward, pulling out a metallic collar and snapping it around the small cat’s neck. Michelangelo made a burst towards them.

“Klunk-!”

His attempt in rescue was made futile as one of the aliens promptly pulled the turtle back, throwing his hands into a pair of sleek, silver cuffs. Before they knew it, more of the aliens had begun to flock into the lair, holding up various types of equipment resembling guns. Something like this would usually have Donatello fascinated, but his mind was too distracted by the chafing grip of the handcuffs around his wrists, and the sudden outburst from one of his brothers across the room. Raphael growled as the guard beside him tried to force him into the designated handcuffs, and swiftly brought around his leg to kick the figure away.

“Raph, don’t-!”

Raphael had little time to yell back at Don, as he was soon brought to his knees by the paralyzing shock from a spherical taser that one of the guards aimed at his neck. Unable to fight back immediately, he too was forced into the steel clamps like his comrades, and the guard tugged him to his feet.

“By declaration of the Galactic Federation, you are all under arrest for harbouring illegal, potentially destructive foreign matter, _and_ using physical violence against an officer of the law.” The guard bellowed in the weakened turtle’s ear.

All but Master Splinter exchanged confused glances across the room, Michelangelo frowning as he watched Klunk being lifted into a large white capsule, his stomach churning at the sound of the feline’s distressed meows. The squad leader made a hand gesture, signalling for his subordinates to begin making their way out of the sewers as he continued to mutter into his headset. Donatello turned to Master Splinter as they all began to get pushed out of the lair, lowering his voice slightly.

“Master Splinter… What do we do…?”

“Stay calm, my son. We shall soon find out what this is all about.” The old rat looked over at his other sons. “That is, if your brothers can restrain themselves long enough.”

Donatello didn’t seem entirely satisfied with the answer given, but nodded and allowed the group of aliens to lead him and his family and friends up to the surface.

After what seemed like an eternity of scheduled ‘witness-memory-erasing’ and travel preparation, the seized individuals sat quietly in the spaceship’s mobile cell, arms still tied behind their backs. The whole room was silent enough to hear the hum of the ship’s engine and the faint rattling of the metallic plates covering the walls. Everyone in the group had been fitted with oxygen tubes running from compact bottles into their mouths, reminding them all vaguely of their previous space encounters. Raphael was restless, letting out the odd grumble and thumping his heel on the floor of the room. Leonardo turned to look at him.

“Cool it, Raph.”

“Cool it? **_Cool it?!_ ** ” The angered turtle seethed. “Do you guys have your heads up in the clouds? We’ve just been arrested by freakin’ aliens for who knows what and taken from our home in the space of two hours! Not to mention they took our weapons! And you’re telling me to ‘ _cool it’_ ?! Geez, Leo, out of all the people, I figured **_you_ ** would-”

“Raphael! That is enough!”

The sound of his father’s stern tone made Raph back off slightly, growling before looking back at the ground and once again slamming his foot on the ground in frustration. Leo looked at his brother sympathetically before turning his head to Usagi and Gennosuke.

“Usagi, I-…I’m really sorry about this.”

The young rabbit shook his head.

“You need not apologise, Leonardo-san. We both took a great risk in visiting you when we did, but there is no blame to be put on you.”

The moment was shortly interrupted by Michelangelo, who had been unusually quiet for most of the journey.

“Why would they take Klunk? He’s just a little cat…!”

Donatello, who was sitting beside him, frowned before forcing a comforting smile at his worried brother.

“I’m sure Klunk’s okay, Mikey.”

Raphael’s glare could be felt from across the room.

“You’re worried about the CAT? What about us?!”

“Raph!” Leo scolded.

“Argh! I’m sorry, but this is all really weird!”

Donatello nodded in agreement.

“It is certainly strange that they freaked out over him…I mean, you’d think cats would be a ‘registered’ animal.”

“What do you mean?” Leonardo asked.

“Well, they said they were inspecting for ‘unregistered creatures’, right? At a best guess that means they must be looking for creatures that they don’t have registered under existence on certain planets.”

“…I guess that makes sense. Sort of.”

“It’s the best I can make out of the situation so far.” Don sighed. “Until they actually tell us what’s going on I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere.”

Mikey let out a faint whine in disappointment, lowering his head. The entire cell went silent once more, with only the clattering of the walls and occasional shuffle from the unsettled individuals breaking the stillness. It wasn’t long before the youngest of the brothers began to fidget where he sat, and perked his head up.

“Oh maaaan! When are we gonna get there?! This is so boring! Why did they have to handcuff us? Couldn’t they have at least given us some comic books or something?”

Leonardo wanted to set his head into his palm, but due to his restricted movements had to do with simply tipping his head back in exasperation. Master Splinter closed his eyes.

“Be patient, Michelangelo.” One of his eyes opened to look over at the turtle. “And try to keep your voice down. We do not want a repeat of Raphael’s mistake back in the lair.”

Raphael snarled and simply turned his head away from his family, gritting his teeth. He could tell he would not hear the end of this for a while to come. Leo, suddenly having an idea, lowered his head back down again to look at Donatello, throwing a question his way before Mikey could stir up another outburst from Raphael.

“Wait- Don, what about your shell cell?”

Mikey blinked, having been successfully distracted by the change in conversation.

“But…Didn’t they, like, take ALL of our stuff?” he contributed.

Donatello leaned back against the wall, nodding.

“They did. That and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re in _space_. It wouldn’t work out here anyway!”

Michelangelo grinned and pointed his foot at his blue-masked brother, letting out a slight chuckle.

“Y’sure you’ve got enough oxygen going to your brain, Leo? Even I knew that!”

The leader frowned and sighed as his brother laughed at him. Donatello was right, but as embarrassed as he was for not thinking his question through, he was glad to have directed Mikey’s teasing away from Raph, who was still sulking on the floor. He rested the back of his head against the wall once again and closed his eyes. It took a while for Mikey to settle down into silence again, leaving the room to once more be filled with nothing but the ambient sounds created by the mechanics of the ship. The rattling of the seats and walls soon became muffled, and the low hum of the ship’s engine began to slowly fade away as he began to slowly drift off into a deep slumber.

Many hours passed before Leonardo opened his eyes again, his face scrunching up as he was awakened with a blinding light shining in his face. Still being slightly drowsy, he barely registered the fact that he was quickly pulled to his feet and lead out of the spaceship with his companions. He shook his head multiple times to try and waken himself up, but was still unable to fully adjust to the sudden change in light.

“Ugh…Donnie…What’s going on?”

Donatello looked at his brother.

“I think we’ve arrived at...wherever we’re supposed to be taken to.”

Leo looked back ahead, allowing his eyes to continue adjusting. His focus on this caused him to stumble over his own feet slightly.

“Agh…I can’t believe I fell asleep.”

“We ALL fell asleep, Leo- well, everyone except Master Splinter. It was a long journey, besides; the pressure inside that cell probably didn’t help. At least you’ve actually woken up.”

At his last remark, Don cocked his head, gesturing for Leo to look to his other side. As he did so he witnessed two armoured guards staggering along with Michelangelo asleep in-between them, snoring directly into their ears. Leonardo couldn’t help but cringe slightly, embarrassed by his brother’s lack in grace considering their situation. Master Splinter, who wasn’t too far away, shared Leonardo’s expression, shaking his head. 

The crew were dragged through what felt like many extended hallways within the mysterious building, occasionally being stopped for scans and weapon checks. Their sleep induced states caused the individuals to barely notice what was happening around them half the time, especially when everything seemed to look the same, it made it that much harder to focus. The walls were mostly pure white, making it harsh on the eyes for someone who had just woken up from being inside a dark spaceship. Mikey finally awoke during one of the final examinations due to the extensive poking and prodding of the staff, almost head-butting one of the guards in the process due to his surprise and confusion. This brief fright was enough to bring everyone to their senses, all becoming aware that they were now being brought into some sort of hall filled with high-raised desks and stands. 

“It almost looks like a courtroom.” Don said as he was pushed onto a wide, flat pedestal.

Once all of them were gathered on the platform, the collection squad leader appeared in front of them, a digital clipboard under one arm. He cleared his throat before speaking.

“It is expected of you to remain silent unless spoken to throughout this session. Anything you do say could be used against you, and will be put on record. There are designated guards at every entrance; any violence or attempt at leaving this room will result in an immediate jail sentence.” He shot a brief glance at Raphael. “Do you all understand this?”

The group exchanged glances at each other, before nodding hesitantly. Donatello opened his mouth to ask a barrage of questions, but was halted by a stern look from his father. Raphael simply grunted to himself, restraining himself as best as he could so as not to cause another scene. Without anything more to add, the squad captain took a small bow before leaving the platform. The following hour consisted of groups of aliens gradually filling up all the empty spaces in the room, one of which was very largely built and wore a steel helmet over its head. This particular creature stood at the front of the room, shuffling some documents before taking a place at the large desk set out before him. A few more minutes were spent waiting for the room to become filled to the brim with chattering individuals, all of different species and origin. One of the few times the cuffed crew blended in with such a crowd, they still managed to stick out like a sore thumb. It wasn’t long before a thumping was heard from the front of the room, causing everyone to stop talking and fix their gaze upon the bulky alien, who was slamming a large hammer-like object against his desktop.

“If I can have your attention, everyone.” He bellowed in a low, gruff voice. “We shall proceed with the trial.”

Michelangelo fidgeted where he stood. A trial sounded really boring, and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to stand for the entire session, especially as one of his legs had begun to go to sleep. Leonardo nudged him as a warning before returning his attention to the front.

“The accused before you have been taken into custody under the belief of concealing a potentially dangerous life form listed under the targets of the Galactic Federation’s Collection Division.”

The judge shuffled for the next page.

“The individuals have been taken from the planet known locally as ‘Earth’, and less than 12 earth hours ago were convicted during a Federation official search, not only for the suspicion of hiding the described life form, but also for afflicting physical assault on an officer within the Galactic Law Force.”

Raphael flinched as he felt the gaze of his peers fall on him, trying ever harder to contain his rage and clenching his restrained fists. Mikey stood beside him, becoming equally as restless as he felt his boredom begin to sink in. He’d been restricted for almost half a day, it was getting increasingly difficult for him to keep still, evident from the small dance he began to do on the spot before getting a soft kick in the shin from Leo. Mikey winced and tried to hold back a yelp. Donatello frowned at his brothers, trying to listen to the judge so he could deduce the situation.

“Shhhh.” He hushed, quietly.

The judge read through a couple more of his sheets of paper before continuing.

“As the creature has now been taken into specified labs for testing- we shall call some witnesses to the stand regarding the charge of physical violence.”

The next ten minutes or so consisted of various members of the collection team standing at the front of the room and giving their personal accounts on the incident. The turtles and their friends only got the occasional vague question asked, which gradually made them feel all equally frustrated as they still failed to grasp the full brunt of the situation. Eventually one of the familiar cloaked aliens entered the room and walked up to the judge to whisper something in his ear, followed by the judge nodding and shuffling his papers again.

“Having just received confirmation that the creature has been safely contained, we shall move onto the main charges.” He shifted his gaze to peer at the turtles over his documents. “I pose these following questions to the young man in the orange mask.”

The group turned to look at Michelangelo, who by this point was starting to zone out due to boredom, and had to be brought to attention by Raphael budging him forward.

“Whuh- huh? Me?”

“Yes, you.”

“Uh- okay.”

The judge looked at his paper once again before looking back at the turtle.

“The record states that you seemed rather distressed at the capturing of this creature. Had you grown an emotional attachment to it?”

“Well, yeah.”

“And this would mean you have had the creature under your possession for an extended period of time, correct?”

“I-…guess so?”

Mikey began to find himself feeling a bit nervous. He wasn’t particularly comfortable in serious situations, and he knew if he tried to make jokes right now, he’d most surely get a beating. The judge continued.

“Now, the Federation is well aware that not all planets will be enlightened with the Galactic Laws… However, due to the severity of this recent law, we cannot afford to let incidents like this slide by so easily. Young boy, under your knowledge, is your planet “Earth” under any connection with the Galactic Federation?”

“Uh, no…At least, I don’t think so.”

“Then of course you will be unaware of the current searches made by the Federation’s Collection Division across the galaxy?”

“Well, Usagi said something about it, but-”

The judge frowned.

“So you _were_ aware? And despite this, you still hid the creature from the Division’s eyes?”

“Wait- what- no I-”

“And not only did you conceal the existence of the creature, but upon accusation one of your companions attacked an officer?”

“No! I mean- well- I don’t…!”

Mikey looked to his brothers over his shoulder as panic began to sink in. The group still had little idea of what was happening, and he grew increasingly unsure of what to say in his responses. A thud was heard at the desk as the bulky umpire slammed his hammer on it and then cleared his throat.

“All the evidence and witness accounts given only strengthen the suspicion to your conviction. With the life form now in custody, and no more ground to cover I will now set my declaration.” He dropped his documents onto the table and slammed his hammer once more. “Until all experimentations and confirmations on the illegal matter are finalized, I hereby sentence all of you to confined imprisonment in the jails of the Galactic Federation Headquarters.”

The group’s gasps were drowned out by the sudden uproar from the jury, and the judge’s hammer banging echoing throughout the room. Guards that had been previously surrounding the platform gathered together to lead them all out of the courtroom, leaving little opportunity for the characters to make any form of protest as they were taken away through the wide, empty halls towards the prison that awaited them.


	2. Jailbreak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now imprisoned after their court summons, the gang must escape from the Galactic Federation...

The barred door closed behind Michelangelo with a clang as he was shoved into the cell with his brothers and father. 

“You can’t do this! Wait!” He yelled as he wrapped his stubby fingers around the metal poles of the cell. “I demand a lawyer!”

“Cut it out, Mikey.” Leo sighed from across the enclosed space.

Donatello sat on a bench within the cell, rubbing his wrist whilst watching his younger sibling.

“Well at least we don’t have to wear those handcuffs anymore. I can’t deny I’m impressed at just how strong their equipment is. Plus, these cells are a lot nicer than the ones the Triceratons put us in.”

Mikey turned to face his family, flailing his arms around in frustration.

“But they’ve got Klunk!” He walked over to Donatello and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him slightly. “They said ‘experimentation’, Donnie! What if they’re doing something awful to him?!”

Leonardo walked over to his brother, gently pulling him away from Donatello.

“Calm down.”

The young turtle let out a muffled whine as he clutched his head and dropped onto his knees. Leo continued over to the cell bars and held onto them, pushing his face forward to peer through the gaps as best as he could.

“We’re just as worried as you are, Mikey, but we can’t do anything until we figure out how to get out of here. Getting out of these cells has to be our top priority right now.”

Master Splinter, who had previously been sat on the bench beside Don, got to his feet to walk over to his blue-masked son.

“Your brother is right, Michelangelo. If we are to be of any use, we must first focus on our escape.”

Raphael got to his feet.

“And how do you suppose we do that? We ain’t got any weapons!”

Donatello looked up thoughtfully before also shifting over to the cell bars and examining them. He lightly tapped on the slick, grey bars and took his hand to his chin, contemplating on what materials they might be made from. Considering it was an imprisonment made _by_ aliens _for_ aliens, there could be a large number of possibilities far beyond his own knowledge.

“Well one thing’s for sure, we won’t be able to break these open by brute force alone. These prisons are probably designed to constrain the strongest of living organisms.” He moved his gaze over to the lock on the door of the cell. “The locks look digital too, and without my kit I’m afraid there’s not much I can do about that.”

Leonardo looked at him.

“So…What do we do?”

“The only other options we would have are probably the floors and walls of the cell- but even then, I’m pretty sure they’ll be as tough as those bars.”

Raphael grinned with confidence and stepped back from the nearest wall.

“We’ll see about that!”

The rest of the group had little chance to stop him before the hot-headed turtle thrust his foot directly into the wall opposing him, the action swiftly followed by a brief howl of pain. Raph clutched his injured food and hopped over to the nearest bench, muttering complaints under his breath. Donatello held his palms upwards in a half-hearted shrug.

“I told you.”

Mikey couldn’t help but smirk himself.

“Hah, who’s cocky now, Raph?”

“Shut it, shell for brains.”

Master Splinter approached them both, hands folded behind his back.

“Boys, calm yourselves.” The rat turned to look at Donatello. “We must think this through properly.”

Michelangelo sighed and slumped against one of the walls, becoming fed up of all the sitting around they had to do. Klunk was in danger, and if they didn’t get to him soon...

“The only thing I can conclude is that all of the digitally controlled security devices must have a power source of some kind in another room outside of the jail that we’re in right now.” Don continued. “If we could get to that and turn off the power, we’d probably be able to open up our cell as well as Usagi and Gen’s.”

Leo nodded as he listened to his brother.

“So I guess the question is, how do we get to the power source?”

“We might want to be careful.” Donatello added. “The security here seems pretty tight. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had cameras or even microphones set up around here.”

Mikey got to his feet and cupped his hands around his mouth.

“Only one way to find out!” He grinned. “Hey, alien bubble-brains! We’re totally gonna get outta these cells of yours- and you all smell like rotting cheese! Y’ever heard of a bath?”

Before any of them could scold their brother, the rooms were illuminated by a vivid red light pulsing on and off throughout the cells, an alarm buzzing simultaneously with it. Michelangelo waved his hands around frantically in panic.

“Ahh-! I take it back! I take it back!”

Leonardo rushed back to the cell bars to get a good look at the hallways, watching closely as guards began to run past each other, shouting instructions back and forth.

“I don’t think that was you, Mikey.”

A burst of static noise was heard from speakers installed throughout the area, followed by a gruff voice.

 _“All guards and personnel report to the laboratories immediately! Captive Suspect 309 has escaped! I repeat, all guards and personnel report to the laboratories! Contain that creature!”_ Another burst of static interrupted followed by a crash in the background. _“It’s getting to the power grid! It’s-”_

The announcer’s sentence was cut short by the sudden blackout that swept throughout the sector. 

“Well _that_ was convenient.” Donatello commented.

Leonardo felt around the bars of the cell until he reached the door and carefully pulled it open with ease. He poked his head out with caution, gradually stepping out into the hallway and making sure the coast was clear before turning to his fellow cellmates and beckoning them with the flick of his fingers.

“This is our chance, let’s go!” He whispered.

They had only taken a few steps out of the cell before the hallways once again became lit, this time with a dim orange light. Leonardo stopped in his tracks and held his arms out protectively in front of his family.

“What’s going on?”

Donatello pushed his brother’s arm down gently.

“Most likely a back-up power system for the prison cells.” He reassured Leo. “We’d better keep going!”

_‘Leonardo-san!’_

The group turned their heads towards the familiar voice. Usagi and Gennosuke had also freed themselves from their jail cells, and made their way over to the turtles and their sensei.

“Usagi! You got out too?”

“Only just, my friend. But we must not linger, the wardens could return at any second.”

Leonardo nodded, continuing down the hallway.

“Before we do anything else, we need to find Klunk AND some weapons.”

“My best guess would be to go into the laboratory they talked about.” Don suggested.

Raphael frowned.

“Oh yeah, let’s just waltz right into their security-filled labs completely unarmed! That’ll work! I don’t know if you were payin’ attention, guys, but that’s where all the guards _went_!”

“Well have you got any **better** ideas?”

Their argument was short-lived as Michelangelo dashed past them eagerly, overtaking the group and making his way down the hallway towards where he assumed the laboratories were.

“I’m coming, Klunk!”

“Argh- Mikey!”

The group promptly chased after him down the passageway, Donatello looking amongst the cells as they went by. He was perplexed at how empty the place was, but these thoughts were soon put to the back of his mind as they entered the main laboratory around the corner and found a much larger group than they had anticipated gathered around the room. They seemed distracted, however, by an indistinguishable blur darting around the area.

“Catch it!” One of the guards yelled.

Mikey had little time to react as he was knocked off his feet by a small object bolting straight into his stomach, followed by a pair of clumsy armored officers stumbling over his legs. The turtle grunted and lifted his head, blinking as he spotted a petite yellow creature collapsed atop his chest. He let out a brief yelp, bringing the creature to its senses. Mikey only managed to catch a short glance of its wide, grey eyes before it leapt clear over his head and ran down the hallway on its four short legs, taking the troops with it. In all of their panic, most of the guards had yet to notice the escapees, at least until Michelangelo let out another cry for his beloved cat, who had been knocked out of a cage and was cowering on the laboratory floor.

“Klunk!”

The young ninja dodged the foes that swiped at him, quickly flinging himself onto the floor and grabbing the cat as he landed. He began petting the feline’s soft fur in comfort, only to then have more guards try to contain him, forcing him to roll out of the way and hop to his feet with the cat held carefully in his clutch. Donatello did a tackle slide under an officers legs and dodged his way through desks and cages to reach the end of the room where he found a glass case containing some familiar items.

“Hey, guys! Our weapons!” He beamed as he grabbed the respective arms and held them high above his head.

This moment of glory was cut short by a laser beam aiming at his hands causing him to duck. Rising to his stance again, he promptly chucked the weapons across the room towards his family members, who by this point were fending off the guards along with Usagi and Gen to prevent further capture. Leonardo jumped backwards to dodge an incoming attack, catching his katana in mid-air. He took a fighting stance as he prepared to defend himself against any further assaults.

“We need a way out of here!”

Usagi took a similar stance beside him, clenching his bare fists in anticipation.

“Our best means of escape would be one of their cruise ships.”

“And where do we find one of those?” Leo grunted as he kicked one of the guards out of his way.

Master Splinter stepped over the fallen soldiers casually, making his way back out of the laboratory.

“I do believe this should lead us to an exit. We need not fight- for now we must run.”

Raphael groaned.

“I **_hate_ ** running!”

Leonardo put his katana back into their sheaths on his shell and pulled his red-masked brother away as he too made a dash for the hallway.

“No time for moaning, Raph!”

With a reluctant grunt, Raphael followed his friends and family as they all made their way out of the laboratories and through the hallway. The hall seemed to stretch on forever, the sound of the group and their pursuers’ footsteps bouncing off the walls. They soon reached a turn-off point, where a large open door led into a large wide docking bay filled with a small selection of spacecraft. Leonardo stopped at the doorway to beckon his comrades, standing by as they all went through. Michelangelo, who was at the end of the pack, caught a view of one of the extra hallways as he went past, promptly turning on his heel to go back and get a better view. In the middle of the hall he witnessed the guards from before surrounding the small creature that had previously knocked him to the ground. One of the guards had grabbed the critter with some sort of extendable clamp, its neck tightly caught within the metal collar’s grip. As it tried to cause a struggle for freedom, one of the officers pressed a button on the clamp that sent a surge of visible electricity through the rod and into the creature’s body. A cry of agony burst from the creature as it became weakened by the shock, this only resulting in another jolt to its seemingly non-resilient body.

“Hey!”

Mikey darted down the hallway, Klunk still tightly clutched under his arm. Leo stepped forward as he watched his brother turn an unknown corner.

“Mikey, what are you doing?!”

As he approached the guards, Mikey spun his nun-chuck with his free hand, knocking one figure to the side, and used his foot to kick the other to the ground. Keeping Klunk under his arm, he shifted so he could use his other hand, wrapping the chain of his nun-chuck around the rod of the clamp-device and pulling back with enough force to snap the rod, disconnecting the clamp from the power controls. Without wasting another minute, he put his nun-chuck back into his belt and picked up the limp animal under his other arm, making a quick dash back to where his brother waited for him. Once he reached the door, laser gunfire began to hit the frame and walls. Leonardo drew his katana once again and walked backwards with caution into the docking bay, keeping his view on the approaching enemy as he let his brother run past him. Donatello and the others had already acquired a ship, and the young engineer had started examining the controls and wires, trying to find a way to get it moving.

“There they are! They have the Suspected Experiments!” A largely built guard pointed from the doorway. “Seize them!”

Guards began to step in from various directions, broken into groups with differing weapons. Lights flashed throughout the room as gunfire began, Leonardo swiftly deflecting as many shots as he could with his katana blades and taking a couple of steps back.

“Donnie, we could use a working mode of transport right about now!”

Donatello had by this point shifted himself underneath a control desk, having opened up a panel to experiment with the wires and fixings inside.

“I’m trying! I haven’t seen this kind of wiring before! Just give me some more time.”

He continued to unplug and plug in combinations of cables as his brothers and father continued to fend off the ever-growing army of guards. Master Splinter stood back-to-back with Leonardo, their movements in sync as they beat off the assaulting figures with their weapons. Raphael, just a few metres away, struggled as one of the guards leapt onto his back, causing him to thrash around to try and throw him off. After eventually pushing the limp assassin off, his eyes widened as he noticed the larger of the guards approach with an extraordinary gun-like weapon. Not even wanting to find out what the weapon did, he promptly kicked a nearby guard into a pile of crates and took some steps back towards the ramp of the ship.

“Come on, brainiac!”

The purple-masked sibling clenched his teeth together as he cautiously attached two wires into certain slots, and grinned as he heard a roar from the engine.

“Got it!”

He slid out from under the control panel and ran to the door of the ship.

“All aboard the fugitive express! Next stop, home!”

At the signal from Donatello, the rest of the family retreated and made a dash for inside the ship as the ramp began to retract, leaving the guards to continue aiming their gunshots into the gradually shrinking gap. Don pressed several buttons and pulled levers at the main control panel, turning on the ships’ thrusters and causing the bulky contraption to lift off the ground in a clumsy manner. The rest of the crew swayed from side to side, Mikey occasionally losing his footing, as the ship got steered out of the docking bay. The squad underneath them continued to fire, shortly giving up as the cruiser was out of range. 

Within the ship, Leonardo sighed, placing a hand on Donatello’s shoulder.

“Nicely done, Don.”

Michelangelo sat up from having fallen on his back again, groaning.

“Could you have done that a bit less…crashy?”

Raphael turned to scold his brother for complaining, but became distracted by the sight of the two creatures huddled underneath his brother’s armpits.

“What the shell is _that_?”

Mikey blinked and followed his gaze, smiling as he saw the yellow animal, almost as if he had forgotten it was there.

“A new friend!”

“Why’d you bring it?!”

“They were torturing it!”

“So what? You don’t know where that’s been- or what it even is! You can’t just-”

A faint beeping heard from the front of the ship interrupted Raph’s rant, Donatello looking back and forth between the screens in front of him.

“Uh, guys, we don’t really have time to argue. We have some followers!”

Raphael automatically drew his Sai once again, moving over to the nearest window to try and get a view outside. He was welcomed with a display of a small fleet of similar looking spacecraft surrounding their own.

“Well that’s just great!” The ship rattled violently as it took a heavy impact to the rear. “…And they even have guns on theirs! Why’d you have to go and pick the dud one, Donnie?”

Leo stepped back down to where his brother was piloting the ship.

“Then it looks like we’re just going to have to outrun them. Don, can you get this thing to go any faster?”

“I can try, but I can’t guarantee it’ll be comfortable!”

“It doesn’t matter, just get us as far from that fleet as possible.”

With a nod, Donatello moved his hand to the lever beside him, gripping onto it.

“Everyone, hang on tight!”

As he shoved the lever forward, the ship shook vigorously and burst ahead at top speed, soon leaving the pursuers far behind. The roar from the engine grew louder and louder as their velocity increased, each of the passengers gripping onto something nearby to prevent them being thrown to the back of the ship. Mikey, however, kept a grip on his small companions, until he became overwhelmed with nausea and dropped them onto the floor so he could cover his mouth and heave. Donatello allowed the ship to keep at its fierce speed for a minute or so, before gradually beginning to slow the ship down again. Raphael peered out of one of the windows to look at the cruisers rear.

“I think you lost ‘em, bro.”

“Good.” Don sighed as he pulled back the lever. “I was afraid these boosters were going to burn out, but they seem to be pretty stable. Impressive.”

Michelangelo, who was on his knees by this point, heaved once more, a small belch popping from his mouth.

“Ugh, I think I’m gonna hurl.”

“Please don’t.” Don begged, as he pressed several buttons in front of him.

Usagi walked over to join Leonardo and Donatello at the front of the ship, being sure to keep away from the controls.

“Your skill is impeccable, Donatello-san. However, I must pose this question…How are we going to return to your planet?”

“Actually, I’ve just about got that covered.” He replied with a smile. “It looks like this ship was one of the ones that dropped down in New York, so all I have to do is reload the coordinates from the last journey and it should all be smooth sailing from there.”

One press of a button finalised the order. Having set the ship into auto-pilot, Donatello got out of the chair he was sitting in and walked over to the rest of his family. Master Splinter, who had sat himself down on a small bench attached to the inner wall of the ship, rested his hands atop his cane, smiling proudly.

“Well done, my sons. And thank you, Usagi, Gennosuke.”

Usagi shook his head, placing his hand on his chest to take a brief bow. Gennosuke nodded his head simultaneously.

“You would have done the same for us.”

A brief silence waded through the room, each of the individuals enjoying the peace after the chaos they had just gone through. Michelangelo soon felt his stomach recover, and reached over to lift up Klunk. He noticed a small metallic mask had been clamped around the cat's muzzle.

“Oh man, Klunk! What did they do to you, huh?”

He started to try and pry the mask off the cat, only to be halted by Donatello.

“Wait, Mikey, don’t!”

“Why?”

“It might be an oxygen mask- we’ll take it off when we get home.”

A concerned frown swept across Mikey’s face as he looked back at Klunk, gently petting his scruffy fur. Raphael sat down in a nearby chair and crossed one leg over the other, resting his chin in his palm as he did so.

“Never mind Klunk, what are we supposed to do with THAT thing?”

The group blinked as Raphael gestured over to a corner of the ship with his free hand, soon shifting their gazes to look. The small extra passenger had cowered not far away from where Mikey sat, its small legs trembling as its eyes darted around in panic. Mikey turned around and picked up the creature.

“Hey, buddy! Don’t be scared- Hey!”

The animal squirmed in his grasp briefly before managing to free itself and run back to its shaded corner. Donatello observed it, rubbing under his chin with his thumb. The creature had an almost lizard-like physique, but was covered in a very thin layer of fur. Its long pointed ears resembled that of a rabbit, and there were faint brown patches covering its back and the tips of its ears. It also appeared to be lacking any form of breathing apparatus, meaning it must have a different internal structure to anything seen on earth.

“Can’t we just take it home?” Mikey pleaded as he tried to shuffle back over to the creature.

“Are you nuts?!” Raphael boomed.

The orange-masked turtle frowned and turned whilst still on his knees to face his brother, pointing at the creature.

“Hey! We owe this little guy big time! We have to do _something!_ They were doing some really horrible stuff to it in there!”

“He does have a point.”

Everyone turned their heads to Donatello as he spoke.

“If it weren’t for…whatever this thing is, we definitely wouldn’t have managed to get out of that prison as efficiently as we did. It turned off the power AND it distracted a majority of the guards.”

Don walked over to where Mikey was and crouched beside him, getting a better look at the creature.

“What we don’t know is why it was there in the first place. They had all sorts of organisms in that lab. Can’t help but wonder exactly what it is that they’re looking for back there.”

Leonardo folded his arms in thought, looking over at Master Splinter for a verdict.

“What do you think, Sensei…?”

Splinter closed his eyes momentarily.

“Hmmm…” His eyes opened again. “There is little that can be done now. We shall talk about this later…at home.”

Leonardo nodded, and looked back over at the creature, tilting his head slightly as Mikey managed to grab it again.

“What’s that around its neck?”

The youngest turtle petted the creature’s head.

“They caught it with this weird clamp thing, and it had a remote that zapped it if it tried to fight back!”

Donatello examined the metal collar as Mikey continued to hold the creature still, feeling around its fuzzy neck and ears.

“Well that explains why it’s a lot more timid. Not to mention less energetic.” He got to his feet again. “I can’t remove it at the moment though, it’s clamped on tight and it doesn’t look like there are any tools in here that I can use. We’ll have to wait until we get back to the lair…which will take a few hours.”

Mikey held the creature close and gently began to pet its head.

“There, there.” He cooed. “It’s okay, you’re safe now! We’re your friends, we won’t hurt you.”

The little creature continued to tremble in his grasp, but made little effort to resist the embrace. Klunk trotted over out of curiosity and sniffed the creature’s tail as it twitched back and forth, soon becoming hypnotised by the movement. Don continued to observe the small alien, feeling sympathy for it as his brother continued to caress and comfort. Whatever the creature had been through had traumatized it enough to bring it to a complete standstill, and being trapped in an enclosed space with seven unfamiliar entities definitely wouldn’t help with the stress. Being as there was little else they could do within the ship, the various individuals gradually shuffled into their own spaces, giving Mikey a bit more breathing space with Klunk and their new found companion. It was going to be a long journey home, and the last thing they needed was that creature bouncing off the walls, or worse; Mikey getting frustrated and bored.

Leonardo was uncertain of exactly how many hours had passed since he had fallen asleep, but what he did know was that it had been long enough to make his eyelids feel like they were made of lead. He sat up from his spot on the floor, rubbing his eyes gently before looking over towards the control area where Donatello sat piloting the ship. 

“’Bout time you woke up!”

The still drowsy turtle turned his head to look upon Raphael, who was now leaning against the wall opposite him, arms folded. Leo stood up hesitantly as he rubbed his eye once more.

“Why, what’s going on?”

“We’re almost home, that’s what.” Donatello beamed from the front of the spacecraft.

Leo walked over to the control deck and rested a hand on the back of Don’s seat, squinting to look out the windscreen in front of them.

“Really?”

Just as clouds parted to give the view of their precious New York City basking in the moonlight, the vessel began to shake vigorously, Leo taking a tighter grip onto Don’s seat to prevent him from falling over. Michelangelo held Klunk and the small alien close as he swayed back and forth from the tremors of the ship.

“What gives, Donnie?!”

“Hold on guys, this may get a little bumpy.”

“A _little?_ ” Raphael growled as his body slammed into the nearest wall.

The next five minutes were filled with rattles and shakings within the ship as Donatello tried to steer the spacecraft as close to their home as possible, whilst trying to remain inconspicuous. This attempt was brief, for the ship landed clumsily in front of their abandoned garage, trailing smoke and the echoing clatter with it. The bridge door of the ship hit the ground with a forceful clang, dust and smoke pouring out from every gap. Donatello staggered out of the ship, coughing into his fist.

“See! I parked just in the right place!”

Raphael passed him, giving him a light shove in the shoulder.

“Yeah, real smooth sailin’, Don.”

Leonardo stepped out after Raph, turning to look at the ship as he set foot on the Earth’s soil once again.

“We need to hide this thing somehow.”

Don joined his brother, folding his arms as he set his gaze upon the spacecraft.

“It’ll probably fit in my workshop. I just have to move it before anyone notices that it’s here.”

“Hm.” Leo nodded. “Raph, you, me, and Don will try to move this thing down into the lair. Mikey, you take Master Splinter and the others on ahead. We’ll catch up.”

Mikey, however, was too busy kissing the ground to listen to his instructions. Only when he received a kick in the side from Raph did he come to attention. After being told for a second time what he was meant to do, the young turtle nodded and picked up Klunk and the new creature under his arms as he made his way under the opening garage door, Master Splinter and the other two comrades following shortly after.

It took a lot less effort than expected to shift the shuttle into the lair, although the constant waft of engine fumes blowing into the turtles’ faces no matter where they stood did cause some minor implications. The vapour had diminished significantly by the time the ship was set up securely into Donatello’s workshop, and after dusting their hands clean, the brothers joined the rest of the group in the middle of the main hall. Usagi and Gennosuke stood before the lucent portal that was about to take them home to their own worlds. Master Splinter stood forward and bowed, his sons copying the motion.

“Thank you for your help. We must sincerely apologize for dragging you into our feuds, Usagi-San.”

Usagi and Gen concurred by bowing as well.

“You needn’t apologize. It was inevitable, and as always, it is a privilege to fight along-side you and your family.”

Leo stood up straight again, looking over at his long-eared friend.

“I hope you can fix things up back on your world.”

The rabbit nodded, smiling. Gennosuke cleared his throat as the portal opened up further.

“Farewell, friends.” He snorted before stepping into the portal, Usagi following shortly after.

The family waved after them as the door of light slowly subsided. A unified sigh was shared amongst the individuals, a wave of relief and exhaustion only just hitting them.

“Well I don’t know about you guys, but I think I’m going to hit the sack.” Leo yawned as he stretched.

Raphael gave him a confused look.

“Seriously? You slept more than all of us on that freakin’ ship.”

“Did I?”

Master Splinter stepped towards his sons, placing his hand on Leonardo’s back.

“Don’t worry, my sons. It has been a very long day. I suggest we all get some rest.”

The turtles could not agree more, nodding at their father before beginning to shift off to their respective rooms. Donatello, on the other hand, walked over to Michelangelo to carefully lift the recently obtained yellow creature out of his brother’s grasp.

“You guys can go ahead. First I’m going to take that mask off Klunk, and get the clamp off this poor little guy.”

“Alright, Don. Just be careful.” Leo warned.

The purple-masked turtle waved his family off as they made their way to their rooms, soon turning on his heels to walk over to his small work area, Mikey following not long after him. The oxygen mask attached to Klunk was surprisingly easy to remove, allowing the cat to jump off the desk and dart over to the comfort of the sofa within less than two minutes. Unfortunately the same could not be said for their new furry friend, Donatello having to dig out a small cutting torch to carefully slice through the metal collar. Mikey watched closely, keeping a firm hold on the creature to keep it still whilst his brother hacked away at the restricting piece of equipment. Not even five minutes later, Donatello lifted his protective goggles from his eyes to his head and pulled the now shredded slices of metal away from the alien.

“There, that ought to do it.”

Mikey beamed as he removed his own pair of goggles and lifted up the creature.

“Awesome! You’re the best, Don!”

Donatello put his hands on his hips.

“What are we going to do with it now, though?”

“We’ll keep it!” The younger turtle grinned as he cradled the animal, lightly tickling its belly. “Oh I know, let’s give it a name! What about…Clang? Or Rocky!”

Don yawned as he put his equipment away.

“Uh, yeah, you do that, Mikey. I’m heading off to bed.”

Mikey failed to hear this, as he was already off on a tangent, reeling off lists of names to the small creature buried in his arms. 

“Oh, how about Boomer? What do you think, Klunk? Or maybe…Jazz!”

Donatello sighed, not having the energy to try and repeat himself, and simply made his way to his room, leaving his energetic brother to continue thinking aloud into the early hours of the night.


	3. Observation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having obtained a new friend, the family find themselves at odds with one another on how to deal with the recent addition.

Raphael’s content snoring was cut off as he rolled onto his side and almost slipped out of his hammock. Having woken up from his reflexes being put into action, he sat up and yawned, stretching out one arm as he did so. The night before almost seemed like a dream now, or maybe it had been. The turtle pondered this as he carefully climbed down from his perch and began to make his way towards the main hall, scratching the top of his head. An all too familiar cry of distress from the kitchen caught his attention, and he soon found himself grumbling a lot earlier than he intended that morning. As expected, Michelangelo ran out of the nearby room, hands clamped to his head, and destroying Raph’s hopes of the previous day being an illusion.

“Geez, Mikey, do you have t’be so loud? What’s wrong now?” the red masked turtle barked.

“He’s gone! Dash is gone!”

“Who the shell is Dash?”

“It’s what he’s called our new _‘pet’_.” Donatello explained from across the kitchen entrance, picking up what appeared to be dropped snacks and cooking utensils from the floor.

Raphael turned to Mikey, fuming.

“You named it?!” He marched up to his panicked brother, prodding a finger into his chest. “We’re not keeping that thing, Mikey!”

“But why?! What else are we supposed to do?”

“Y’don’t just snatch some random creature from another planet, take it home, and make it your pet!”

Donatello pulled his seething brother back slightly with his free hand.

“Calm down, Raph. He has a point.”

Raphael looked at his other brother, gritting his teeth.

“It’s an alien, remember?” Don continued. “We can’t just dump it on the streets where people can see it. It doesn’t exactly fit in with the local wildlife.”

“So we’ll just take it back to that galactic federation place! They’ll take care of it! Let it be _their_ problem.”

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to take it back to the same place where we just essentially broke out from?” Donatello frowned.

“Uh, hello, ‘it’ has a NAME!” Mikey blurted.

Before Raph could put in another word, Leonardo joined the group by dropping down from the higher levels.

“What are you guys arguing about?” He blinked as he noticed Donatello’s armful of snacks, and various items in the hall having been knocked over. “What happened?”

The youngest of the turtles pushed through the group in a burst of excitement, running towards the lair entrance.

“Dash! There you are!”

The small yellow creature had plodded back into the room, its fur slightly ragged and eyes darting around frantically on high alert. Mikey crouched down by the newly dubbed ‘Dash’ and lifted him up, giving him a brief nuzzle before returning to his brothers with the small alien in his grasp.

“We don’t even know where this thing came from! What if it really is dangerous?” Raphael pointed at Dash. “It was in that place for a reason!”

“Yeah, for them to prod at him with creepy alien dissecting tools no doubt!”

Leo stepped in between Raph and Mikey, holding his hands out to beckon silence from the pair.

“Look, why don’t we just wait for Master Splinter to get up, and he’ll tell us what we should do with it. It isn’t hurting anyone right now, so until then can you both just keep your cool?”

The two turtles grumbled before turning their heads away, Michelangelo soon returning his attention to Dash.

“Where’d you go to, little guy, huh?”

Donatello stepped forward to peer at the alien’s face.

“My guess is that it panicked.” He looked around the room with a sigh. “Well, it would explain why half of my tools are all over the floor at least.”

“Maybe he’s hungry!”

“He could be. Now that you mention it, I wonder what kind of diet his species has…”

Mikey held Dash against his chest with one arm, the other moving to swipe a packet of potato chips from Don’s current stash.

“Let’s try these! Everyone loves potato chips! And these are _chicken_ flavoured.”

“Be careful, Mikey. If he’s sick, you’re cleaning it up.” Donatello warned his brother as he began to make his way back to the kitchen to put away the remaining snacks in his arms.

“Yeah, yeah.”

It wasn’t long before the pair had become perched on the sofa in front of the television sets, the young enthusiastic ninja carefully poking chips at the reluctant creature’s mouth until it caved and began to nibble cautiously at the mysterious snack. Seeming satisfied with the food, Dash shoved his snout into the packet held in Mikey’s hand, and feasted on the crunchy meal. Mikey let out a chuckle as he watched Dash eat, blinking as he noticed Klunk trot over to join them. The feline jumped onto the sofa to sniff at its fuzzy comrade, taking in the unfamiliar scent. Feeling the cat’s nose briefly press into his fur, Dash flinched and shuffled towards the other side of the sofa, ears perked and eyes wide in panic.

“Woah, buddy.” Mikey reached over to lift Dash up and place him in his lap. “Chill! That’s just Klunk! He’s your friend too. See?”

The two creatures stared at each other curiously, eventually leaning forward and exchanging inhalations of the others’ aroma. After deducting that Klunk wasn’t a threat, Dash eventually sat back and pressed his muzzle back into the packet of chicken flavoured potato chips. Klunk let out a mew, poking at the bag to try and get a view inside it along with his new friend.

“Michelangelo.”

The turtle looked away from the animal duo and over his shoulder to see Master Splinter stood by the sofa, both hands resting carefully on top of his walking stick.

“Oh- Hey Master Splinter.”

“You must be wary of what you do with this creature. It is not of this world.”

Raphael appeared along with Leonardo and Donatello, resting his hands on the back of the sofa to hold his weight as he leaned over it slightly.

“See! I told you guys we should get rid of it!”

“That is not what I was saying, Raphael.”

The rat set his gaze back on the creature, watching as it lifted its snout out of the bag to look at the surrounding group, crumbs masking its twitching nose.

“It is true that we know nothing of this creature’s origin, or what it may be capable of…But this is a risk we face with all our encounters. This is where it is important that we trust.”

Leo took a moment to take in their father’s words, holding his chin in his hand.

“He does have a point, I mean, if we didn’t trust Casey or April…or any of the friends we’ve made, we probably wouldn’t have even become their friends at all. Why should this be any different?”

Mikey grinned and held Dash up in pride.

“Yeah! And how can something this small and cute be bad anyway? He’s like a….a puppy!”

“Actually I’d say it displays more resemblances to a reptile.” Donatello added.

“But he’s fluffy- Reptiles don’t have hair!”

“No, but look at its body shape.”

Raphael clenched his fists, snarling before throwing his hands up in the air in protest.

“Agh, forget you guys!” He turned from the group, beginning to walk away. “Don’t you all come cryin’ to me at midnight when y’over feed that thing and it grows twice its size and starts chewing your shells off!”

“Oh come on, Raph.” Leo called out to his agitated brother as he marched away. “Raph!”

Master Splinter rested a hand on Leo’s arm, shaking his head.

“Let him go. Perhaps some fresh air will clear his mind.”

“But it’s the middle of the day, should we really let him go topside?”

Mikey leaned over the back of the sofa, continuing to hold Dash out in front of him.

“Yeah, Raph isn’t exactly known for his ‘stealth’.”

“Neither are you, Mikey.” Donatello contributed, putting his hands on his hips.

“Hey!”

Before the family could continue their discussion, the sound of the lair’s elevator system caught their attention. Raph had barely made it to the door when it opened before him, unveiling two familiar figures.

“Raph!” Casey boomed as he stepped into the room, spreading his arms in greeting. “Guys! When’d you get back, we-”

His sentence was cut short as Raph sneered at his friends and continued to walk past and into the elevator. The vigilante blinked as the doors closed again, looking over at the rest of the group and gesturing with his thumb.

“What’s eatin’ him?”

April approached the young mutants, placing a hand on Leonardo’s shoulder.

“We were starting to get worried! When Casey came down the other day to find you, you weren’t around so we thought you were just on another night run… but we checked again yesterday and- ”

“Wait- yesterday?”

“Yeah, we even tried your shell cells, but-”

“But we were only gone for a day.”

Donatello put his hand under his chin.

“Hmm…Well it is possible the passage of time between the two places in space would have been different. We must’ve been away for two or three earth days by the sounds of things.”

April raised an eyebrow at her equally educated friend.

“Space? What are you guys talking about?”

The young woman let out a brief, yet minute, yelp as her gaze suddenly fell upon the small yellow alien in Michelangelo’s grasp.

“And what is _that_?” She pointed at Dash cautiously.

Leonardo scratched the back of his head as he followed her line of sight, watching his bemused brother hold up the creature’s paws.

“It’s…kind of a long story.”

An hour or so had passed, the group having settled around the television area, April now resting her fingers around a small cup of tea, and Casey sat beside her with his arms casually thrown across the back of the sofa. The explanation itself had taken longer than intended due to Mikey’s insisting that he mimed extensive re-enactments of the battle scenes and his heroic gesture of rescuing both Klunk and Dash from the clutches of their pursuers. It wasn’t the most surprising story they’d ever heard, in fact, these sorts of things were starting to become the norm for their little family, but April still couldn’t get her head around the fact that all this had happened without either of them noticing. She took another sip from her tea, resting her lips on the rim of the cup for a moment before looking over at Mikey, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor with Dash resting on his lap once again.

“So you don’t know what this thing is?”

Donatello shook his head.

“We don’t know what it is, where it came from, or why it was captured in the first place. Not that it was the only one in there…”

“And Raph just stormed out because of it?”

“I kinda don’t blame him!” Casey leaned forward, shaking a finger in Mikey’s direction. “I mean- what if it’s like a-…a gremlin! One minute it’s cute and cuddly, then the next thing you know- BAM!”

The gesture of Casey slamming his clenched fist into his palm caused Dash to flinch slightly, the creature still bewildered by the new, strange life forms that had entered the room. April set her cup down on the coffee table and got to her feet, cautiously making her way over to Dash and Mikey, crouching by them so she was at a less intimidating level. Dash snuffled back into the turtle’s stomach slightly, staring up at the young red haired woman with wide, anxious eyes.

“I’ve never seen anything like it…” She extended a hand forward to try and pet the small creature, her fingertips only briefly touching the fuzzy coat before Dash retracted his head back further. “It looks almost like it’s from…reptilian descent. But with fur.”

Don walked over to join her, staring at the alien intently. Mikey puffed his cheeks out and caressed Dash’s head.

“Can you guys stop calling him ‘it’? His name is Dash!”

April tilted her head slightly.

“How do you know it’s a boy?”

“Well-…Because he looks like one!”

The purple masked turtle blinked, taken aback at the sudden turn in discussion.

“Mikey, you can’t just say it’s a boy by looking at it, what if it’s a girl?” He leaned forward to get a closer look at Dash. “It might not even have a gender. We don’t know anything about…Uh…’Dash’, or his species to be able to differentiate stuff like that. ”

Don beckoned for his brother to pass him the creature, and after a brief moment of stubborn hesitation, Mikey carefully passed Dash over. Even in his gentle grasp Donatello could feel Dash’s chest expand and contract rapidly, his head constantly turning to keep a view on all of his unfamiliar surroundings. It wasn’t surprising he was on high alert, being on a different planet would be stressful enough without a group of overshadowing people staring at him all the time, but Donatello just had to quench a bit of his curiosity’s thirst. He turned Dash to face him, getting a clear look at the reptile-like alien’s face.

“Hm…I was going to try and work on repairs for the spacecraft today, but since you guys are here…” He lowered Dash and held him close to his chest, turning his head to April. “April, would you mind examining him with me? He’s a little skittish so it’s a bit of a two-person job.”

“Sure.”

There was a brief pause.

“…It doesn’t bite, does it?”

“Unless your hand is made out of potato chips, no.”

Over by the sofa, Casey got to his feet, once again punching his fist into his palm.

“Well if you guys are gonna get all science-y, I guess I’ll do what I do best!”

“Breaking and entering?” Mikey joked half-heartedly, causing him to receive a small glare from the tall vigilante.

“Ha ha, very funny, green boy.” He took his mask out of his backpack and placed it atop of his head. “I’ll go find Raph and pull his moody turtle butt back down here.”

Leo took a step forward, holding his hands up slightly in an attempt to grab the group’s attention.

“Hold on a minute, what about our training?”

Before he could put in another word, Master Splinter stepped into position beside his son, nodding slowly.

“We shall postpone today’s session. “ He took a small bow. “Mister Jones, and Miss O’Neil...once again I apologize for the burdens we must bring upon you.”

The two people smiled, each making their own gesture of brushing off the given apology. April placed her hand on the old rat’s shoulder briefly.

“It’s fine- we are family after all! We’re just glad to see you back safe and sound.”

With the exchange of nods, the various individuals separated, moving on to their respective duties that they had set for themselves. Master Splinter took this period of free time to place himself in front of the television to catch up on his regular soap operas, a simple pleasure he had missed during their exhausting escapade. Leonardo wasn’t too keen on the idea of skipping out on a training session, but given the choice, he decided it might be more beneficial if he accompanied Casey on his mission to bring Raphael back home. As his family members began to scatter, Mikey stood for a moment to deliberate on what to do with himself. His sensei has already taken the television spot, and two people were more than enough to go and find Raph. He glanced over to a small collection of comic books he had left on the floor and bent over to pick up an issue of The Justice Force, beginning to skim through the pages. However, the thrill of rereading his beloved comic was short lived as the sensation of paranoia began to nag at the back of his mind, and he put the issue back in its place, soon shifting off to where Donatello and April had assembled. 

Having been previously working on some enhancement plans for the Battle Shell, Don had to move a lot of paperwork and stationary off his work tops to allow for more space. April cautiously held Dash in place on one of the desks as he did this, keeping her body a reasonable arms length away until she was sure the small creature wasn’t going to turn around and viciously chew her hands off. Her comrade reappeared at her side, sliding one of his lamps closer so the light shone directly onto Dash, his soft coat faintly glistening under the intense glow. The creature scrunched his eyes up as he was moved into the spotlight, Donatello lightly petting his head before taking a hold of his cheeks, April still providing support for the rest of the body. As the curious young turtle began to examine the reptilian-like alien, his brother peered over April’s shoulder, tapping his fingers together nervously.

“You’re not gonna hurt him are you?”

The young woman flinched in surprise, her focus on holding Dash having caused her to not notice Michelangelo approach them. Donatello, on the other hand, didn’t even shift his gaze from Dash’s head.

“Of course not. I’m just giving him a check over to see if I can figure out anything essential about his…well, whatever he is.” He carefully tried to pry the alien’s mouth open. “If he bears any resemblance to a species here on earth, then it might help us figure out how to take care of him properly.”

The small being’s mouth contained a set of small, blunt teeth. Don carefully poked at the teeth as best as he could; only resulting in Dash attempting to chew on his finger. There was very little pain in the action, it was almost like the teeth were made out of rubber, that or they were simply too small to cause any real damage.

“Huh. I guess he is a bit like a puppy.”

“Its teeth are underdeveloped, huh?” April contributed.

“I wouldn’t say that, they’re just…minute. Obviously not designed for excessive chewing… So I think we can safely assume he won’t bite your arms off, April.”

April rolled her eyes and moved in closer to the creature, allowing herself to relax as she continued to hold it in place. Don removed his finger from Dash’s mouth, giving him a brief comforting pat on the head before beginning to feel around his neck.

“What I’m more interested in though is how he’s able to _breathe._ That is, if he does breathe.”

Mikey leaned forward curiously.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, remember how we had to get atmosphere converters when we were taken to that federation prison? Dash didn’t have one there, so you could assume he takes in whatever elements are in their atmosphere.”

“Uhuh.”

“But since we came home to earth, he hasn’t shown any signs of distress or being affected at all by the new atmosphere. If he had lungs that worked the same way ours do, he’d probably be suffocating right now.”

The orange masked turtle leant back again, scratching his head. He hadn’t even considered something like that, and was a little ashamed that he could have potentially put Dash in more danger than what he was already in before, but how was he supposed to know?

After at least fifteen minutes of various prodding and poking, Donatello stepped back and sighed, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“Well, all I can figure out is that he most likely eats food of a soft consistency, and somehow he is able to survive within multiple extraterrestrial atmospheres. The only other way I could find out about his internal structure would be…uh…dissection.”

Mikey let out a brief yelp as he reached across the desk to grab onto Dash, trying to pull him out of April’s grip.

“You can’t do that!”

“Woah, hold on, that’s not what I meant!” Don waved his hands in front of himself defensively. “I was just saying that’s the only way we could find out properly. That or an extremely accurate X-Ray. Sheesh, Mikey, what kind of turtle do you take me for?”

He took another moment to gently stroke Dash’s head, comforting the creature who was now being held in place by an extra pair of hands. Mikey hesitantly let go, folding his arms in a pout. Beside him, April lifted the creature to get a better look herself, soon placing Dash back down and coming to the same conclusion as Donatello.

“You’re right, we can’t figure out much just by looking at it like this.” She removed her grasp from Dash, allowing him to move freely on the table. “But y’know…It isn’t doing too badly as it is. Maybe we should just keep an eye on it from time to time and record anything new that crops up in its behaviour.”

“…That’s actually not a bad idea, April!”

April smirked.

“I try.”

As Don began to rummage through his drawers for a spare notebook, Mikey shuffled over to the front of the desk and carefully picked Dash up, stroking him as he lay in his arms.

“Do you guys have to treat him like some sort of experiment? He probably got enough of that back in that organic…lab...prison thing! ” The young turtle turned his head to April. “And stop calling him ‘it’!”

His brother looked over at him as he lifted a small book and pen from one of his desk drawers.

“Relax, Mikey, it isn’t like that.”

Michelangelo frowned and took a step back, protectively pulling Dash closer to his chest as Donatello approached them with his writing utensils. He opened the book to a fresh page and began to take brief notes on their recent findings, before passing the book to April for a check over.

“Think about it.” He continued. “If you hadn’t taken care of a dog or a cat before and you wanted to buy one, what is the first thing you’d do?”

Mikey remained silent as he searched his brain for an answer, only to be interrupted by Don’s impatient sigh.

“You’d buy a book, right? On how to take care of it.” He looked at the creature held tightly in his younger brothers’ grasp. “Obviously someone at some point in time had to observe those animals to be able to give information on how to take care of them, or else no one would know how to do it. That’s all we’re doing - Observing so we can look after Dash _properly._ ”

After taking a moment to consider Donatello’s explanation, Mikey eventually nodded and reversed his stance back to the way it was before, removing his guard. Feeling a bit more relieved that his new fuzzy companion was in assured safety, he began to tickle the top of Dash’s head, leading his stubby finger down his nose until the alien set his teeth upon his skin. The soft prodding from Dash’s tiny teeth caused the turtle to grin and let out an amused chuckle, once again becoming immersed in playing with their new found friend as his brother and red-haired friend merely watched contently.

***

Meanwhile, on the surface, Leonardo and Casey scoured the streets for their irritable red-masked comrade, Casey stumbling behind the leader turtle as he swept across the rooftops of the inhabited buildings. The city was soaked in the midday sunlight, making the figures all the more visible and meaning a lot more stealth was required for them to remain unseen from the mass of bystanders on the streets below. The light did prove to be an advantage, however, as it took very little time of searching before Leo spotted a bulky green figure crouching behind a small wall on top of a nearby apartment complex, his bright red bandana highlighted by the sun’s powerful rays. The duo stopped not far behind him, Leo folding his arms.

“That doesn’t look particularly relaxing. Wouldn’t it be better to do your brooding when it’s dark out like you usually do?”

Raphael grumbled and got to his feet, turning on his heels to face his brother, but not saying a word.

“Raph, just come home, it’s too risky to stay up here when it’s this bright.”

“No way!” The irritated turtle clenched his fists. “I’m not coming back down there until you guys come to your senses! That alien thing is gonna be trouble, I’m tellin’ you!”

Casey took a step forward.

“Yo, take it easy, Raph! C’mon-”

“I ain’t talkin’ to you, bonehead.”

“Raph.” Leo sighed. “Look, I understand why you’re concerned, but we can’t just abandon this thing. It wouldn’t be right. Besides, aren’t we honour-bound to help those who aid us?”

“You and your stinkin’ honour! It’s always you and your ‘right thinking’ that gets us into these giant messes when they have nothin’ to do with us.”

Leonardo glared mildly at his approaching brother, pointing a finger at him.

“Do I need to remind you of who it was that got us _arrested_ for this particular recent ‘mess’? If you hadn’t attacked that officer, we could have talked our way out of it and none of this would have happened.”

Raph stopped in his tracks, gritting his teeth and reaching for his Sai as Leo continued to talk.

“Your rash acting doesn’t make matters any better so don’t just put me at fault!”

Their human friend looked back and forth amongst them as they spoke, eventually having to push himself into the gap between them as Raph began to march towards Leo.

“Woah, guys, cool it! Geez.” He gently nudged the pair further apart, holding his hands out to prevent them getting any closer. “Don and April are checkin’ out this thing, right? If anyone can figure out if it’s dangerous, it’s them!”

Leo folded his arms again.

“He has a point. Come on, Raph, do you really think Don – and Master Splinter for that matter- would let us keep a potentially lethal alien in the lair?”

Silence fell upon the group as Raphael clenched his teeth together, his rage slowly beginning to subside. He removed his hands from the Sai held around his waist and scratched his head, turning away slightly.

“I-…I guess.”

“See?” Leonardo grinned as he shifted his hands to rest on his hips. “Now come on, let’s go home.”

“Nuh-uh! We ain’t goin’ nowhere yet!”

The two turtles blinked as a battered hockey stick sliced across their vision, soon turning their heads to look at Casey. The blue eyed renegade grinned as he pulled the stick back to hold above his head.

“It’s been days since I’ve been able to spar with ‘ya!” He moved his stick down again to point it at Raphael. “And I reckon _you_ could use some stress release, dude.”

Leo stepped forward.

“Casey, we can’t, it’s broad daylight. We might get seen.”

Casey let out a laugh as he pulled his mask down to cover his face, then shifted his legs to bring him into a fighting stance.

“Then we’ll just have to make it a quick one! Unless you guys are too chicken! Think you can’t beat me that fast? Afraid you’ll get a poundin’? Tell you what, I’ll go easy on ya. You two against me, if you think you can handle it!”

Raph drew his Sai and spun them around his fingers before copying his friend’s stance.

“Oh you’re just askin’ for it now, knucklehead.”

“Guys-”

“What’s wrong, Mister Leader?” Casey barked. “Afraid I’ll wax that shell of yours?”

The blue-masked turtle sighed as he pulled his katana from their sheaths.

“This is a bad idea.”

His comment was lost in the rising tension building between Raphael and Casey, the two characters ready to pounce for each other at any moment. Unexpectedly, Leo made the first move, bringing a single blade down towards Casey, who blocked by pulling out a baseball bat with his free hand. With the battle now initiated, the three individuals began to spar, their weapons clashing and bashing against each other, and their bodies tossing around across the roof of the tall building, soon becoming shrouded in a mild darkness as the sun began to hide behind the curtain of grey clouds filling the sky.

***

Roughly one hour later, the trio arrived back at the lair, returning to the familiar scene of serenity. Michelangelo was now sat on the sofa once again, television blaring, with Klunk lazily sprawled out across his lap and Dash curled up against his side. April and Donatello, who had just finished investigating the newly acquired spacecraft, walked out of the workshop, Don wiping the oil from his hands with a ragged cloth.

“Oh, hey guys.” He greeted.

April put her hands on her hips as she saw the three characters shuffle into the room.

“Where were you? I was starting to worry!”

Leo scratched the back of his head.

“Uh, sorry, we kinda-”

“Oh relax, we were gone an hour at most! It ain’t the longest we’ve been away.” Casey interrupted as he lifted the mask from his face. 

“Casey Jones!” April exclaimed with disdain. “Look at the state of you! What were you guys doing out there?”

“Not getting into more trouble I hope.” Master Splinter said as he emerged from his room, tapping his cane against the ground as he made his way over to the group, making sure to stand directly in front of Donatello and April as he looked directly at his other sons and their friend.

“Nah, Sensei, we just sparred for a bit, that’s all.” Raph explained.

“In the light of day that is a very foolhardy thing to do. I would expect you both to know better, especially you, Leonardo.”

Casey took a step forward.

“Uh, sorry Master Splinter, it was kinda my idea- but it was for Raph’s own good!”

Splinter raised an eyebrow along with April, unsure of what to make of this comment. Before either of them could put in another word, Don cleared his throat to break the minor tension building in the air.

“Speaking of which, Raph, are you feeling any…uh…calmer?”

“Well- yeah. I suppose.” He folded his arms. “I’m still not entirely happy about all this though.”

Leo looked over at his purple-masked brother.

“What did you find out, Don?”

“Not much, really. There’s not much to tell just from looking at it. Although we can assure Raph that he definitely won’t be ‘chewing our shells off’. His teeth are barely fit for eating through a piece of chicken, let alone a limb.”

Raph pouted as he was quoted, slightly embarrassed they had remembered the dialogue of his outburst from earlier.

“Yeah, well, I’m still keepin’ away from it! Who knows what else that thing could do.” He growled.

Mikey scoffed from across the room, having only just begun to listen in on the conversation.

“Oh yeah, Raph, he’s totally gonna get you with his gruesome power of sleeping like a little kitten!”

He feigned a shriek as he continued to mock his brother, putting on a high pitched voice and flailing his arms in the air.

“Help, help! He’s going to eat me with his MASSIVE jaw!”

Dash lifted his head to look at the turtle, his eyes drooping sleepily as he tried to observe out of curiosity. Mikey chuckled as he noticed this, moving his hands down to pet the small alien’s head. Raph felt his blood begin to boil again, but was stopped in his tracks by Master Splinter tapping his stick on the ground.

“I believe now would be a good time to start today’s training session. Now that your brother has let out most of his excess ‘energy’, maybe we can all focus properly.”

Leonardo bowed.

“Yes, Sensei.”

April, who was still standing beside Don at this point, marched towards Casey and grabbed him by the arm.

“That sounds like a good idea. As for _you_ , Mister Jones, you need a good cleaning up!”

“Ah geez, why do you gotta be so paranoid? It’s just a few scratches!”

“A few scratches that once infected can become serious trouble! Now come on- to the kitchen!”

The bulky man grumbled as he was forcefully dragged away, the determined redhead pulling him into the kitchen to search for any form of first aid equipment. On the other side of the room, Mikey remained seated in front of the TV, fussing over his furry companions. He continued to sit contently until Raphael tugged on the back of his bandana harshly.

“Ow!”

“Come on, goofball. Training. You could use some.”

“Oh yeah? Well you need some…some…anger management!”

“What d’ya think you’re here for?” his brother smirked as he walked off to join the others.

Mikey puffed out his cheeks as he carefully shifted Klunk off his lap so he could get to his feet.

“Oh ha-ha!”

He ran his hand across the cat’s fur, and followed by doing the same to Dash.

“Don’t you guys worry! I’ll be right back, okay?”

With another brief pet, he scurried over to where his family had gathered, leaving the two creatures together on the sofa. As the family began their training, Dash sniffed the air, still struggling to keep his eyes open even after being shaken by the turtle’s clumsy movements of getting off the sofa. Without much more to do, he set his head down again, closing his eyes and coiling his tail around his feet, preparing to fall into a comfortable sleep as Klunk shuffled over to curl up next to him.

  
  
  
  
  


  
  



	4. A Dash for Freedom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a small mishap in the lair, April is left in charge of the turtles' pet alien 'Dash', who ends up running loose in the city.

A couple of days had passed since the little ninja family came home from their unexpected escapade, and things had once again begun to settle down. The four brothers went on their nightly patrols as usual, observing the streets after the sun had gone down to watch out for any potential trouble. Donatello had continued to study the spacecraft in his workshop in-between training sessions, Michelangelo occasionally pestering him when he wasn’t busy reading comic books or playing with his little pets. Leonardo and Raphael carried on with training in their spare time, often having to shuffle their footing as Dash would scurry hastily through the lair at random intervals. April and Casey also stopped by a few times, April still checking up on the small yellow alien out of curiosity, and Casey casually dropping hints of wanting to join in on the midnight runs. This tranquillity lasted but a short time, as one evening the lair echoed with the growls of Raphael and his underlying anger coming to surface.

“Alright!” He bellowed. “What the _shell_ happened to my punchin’ bag?!”

His brothers began to gather as he held up his tattered old punching bag, a large hole revealing the inner materials that gave the item its durable consistency. Mikey, on the other hand, remained where he was in front of the TV, petting Klunk as he crunched enthusiastically on his snacks. Donatello tilted his head as he stared at the punching bag.

“…What’s the problem exactly?”

“What’s the prob- It’s got a freakin’ hole in it!” Raph pointed directly at the fluff bulging out of the ragged inner lining. “Just look at that!”

“Doesn’t that always happen when you overuse it? It’s happened before, why don’t you just sew it back up again?”

Raph lowered the bag slightly as he looked at his brother.

“I haven’t used the thing since yesterday and it was perfectly fine then!” He gaze shifted over to where Mikey sat. “Mikey…!”

The youngest turtle looked over his shoulder, speaking with a mouth full of potato chips.

“Don’t look at me, dude, I use nunchaku! How’d you expect me to cut a hole like that in it? Besides, cutting open the punching bag? Puh-lease! I did that gag years ago, give me _some_ credit.”

The fuming individual’s line of sight then set upon Leo, who had joined the gathering shortly after Don, arms folded.

“…You honestly think I’d use my swords on your raggedy old punching bag?”

A growl of frustration escaped between Raph’s clenched teeth as he looked back at the massacre on his beloved boxing equipment. He needed someone to blame and he was quickly running out of possible suspects.

“Maybe it was Klunk.” Don suggested as he bent over to inspect the damage.

Beginning to tire of his brother’s unnecessary outburst, Leo marched over to grab the bag and place it carefully on the floor. Raph glared harshly at him, about to vocalise his protest when he was halted by the opposing turtle’s stern tone.

“We can worry about solving the murder mystery of the battered heavy bag later. It’s time we went out on patrol.”

Before anyone could say anything else, a yelp was heard from the other side of the room, the group turning their heads to look over at Mikey as he flailed his arm around frantically. Dash stood not too far away from him, cowering slightly with his ears drooped low.

“What’s wrong now, lame brain?”

“He bit me! Dash bit me!” The young turtle whimpered.

Donatello walked over to his brother, crouching to lift up Dash and hold him carefully in his arms as he reached the seating area. Mikey got to his feet, holding up his finger to show the smallest speck of blood emerging from his skin. 

“It’s just a little prick, Mikey.” Don frowned. “Go get a band-aid from the kitchen or something.”

Raphael sneered from across the lair.

“Baby.”

As the over-dramatic ninja shuffled his way into the kitchen to tend to his wound, Don looked down at the alien in his arms and lightly prodded its nose.

“I don’t see how you could get bitten by hi-”

His sentence was cut short as he slid his finger into Dash’s mouth and flinched, caught off guard by the mild stinging sensation brought upon by the teeth digging into his flesh. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it was a lot more of a dominant sensation than he had expected. Suddenly concerned, he gently held Dash’s jaw open so he could get a better view of his teeth, and sure enough, the little creature had developed a small set of sharply-edged choppers in the corners of its mouth.

“…Well that’s…strange.” He turned to walk over to Raphael and Leonardo, Dash still in his clutches. “I think we may have found your culprit, Raph- though I don’t really understand how this happened. He could barely chew through Mikey’s potato chips the other day.”

Raph fumed once again, taking a step forward and lifting his hand to point at the creature in his brother’s arms.

“I told you guys that thing was trouble!”

Leo placed a hand on his arm, gently lowering it to his side.

“Take it easy, Raph.” He looked at Dash. “Don, do you think it’ll be okay to leave him here?”

“I don’t know…” Don shook his head, “I mean he still seems pretty docile, but…”

“I say we get rid of it!”

Raph made a throwing gesture with his hand, which was soon met by Mikey pushing past him and swiping Dash out of Don’s arms.

“No way! We can’t!”

“Haven’t we been over this already?” Donatello sighed as he carefully took Dash back from his brother. “I say we go on patrol to clear our heads. In the meantime, we can drop Dash off at April’s- she’ll have a look at him.”

Leonardo nodded in agreement.

“Great, we have a plan. Now can we go already?”

After some hesitant contemplation, the four young ninja carried on with their agenda and set off to the world above, Donatello tucking Dash carefully into his bag on the way.

***

April has just finished wiping the countertop by the till of her antique shop when she heard a knock at the door. Being as she closed up well over an hour ago, she could already make a guess as to who was there awaiting her.

“Coming!”

Upon opening the door she was almost brought with a sense of accomplishment for guessing correctly, as four green mutant turtles stood before her, raising a two-fingered hand in greeting. 

“Hey guys.” She smiled. “What’s up? Not on the run are you?”

“Actually, we’re just stopping by to give you something.” Donatello stated as he slid his bag from over his shoulder and placed it on the ground, struggling to unzip it as the material mysteriously squirmed.

April raised an eyebrow. From past experience she could only gather this could either be a really good thing, or something that she would later regret and have to take out her frustration on a tub of ice cream shoved at the back of her freezer. She almost fell over as Dash practically leapt from the unzipped bag, Don only just managing to catch him and hold his wriggling body in a firm grip. After a brief moment of attempting to break free, the small alien eventually opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. Noticing the familiar figures around him, he gradually calmed down, becoming limp in Don’s grip as he gently petted him. 

“Could you look after Dash for a while?”

“W-What?”

“It won’t be for long, we’re just going for a run- and- well…”

Raphael stuck his finger forward, pointing it towards the little yellow creature.

“That stinkin’ alien ripped up my punchin’ bag, that’s what!”

Leonardo lightly slapped his forehead in frustration and pulled his sibling back, taking a step forward in his stead.

“We’re just not too confident keeping him in the lair unsupervised at the moment, and we don’t want him left alone with Master Splinter either.”

April took a step back, holding her hands out ready to protest.

“Woah woah- Hold on! You want me, the owner of an _antique shop_ , to look after a rabid alien that can barely keep still at the slightest pin-drop? I’m sorry guys, but this place already got trashed once, I can’t afford it to happen a second time!”

“Please, April?” Mikey stepped right up to the red haired woman, clasping his hands together. “Please, please, pleeaasseee?”

“We promise it won’t be for long.” Don assured as he held Dash out towards her.

Bringing her fingers to pinch the bridge of her nose, April sighed. She had little confidence in the idea, however she knew that her friends would have had to make the decision between her and Casey as a caretaker, and naturally she would have been their first choice. Normally she would be flattered, but her concern for her shop overrode most other thoughts in her head. Regardless, she took the alien from the turtle’s grasp and held him in her own, running a hand across his fuzzy coat to keep him calm. Don smiled at her gratefully.

“Thanks, April.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Her response lacked sincerity, but nonetheless, she smiled and waved as the young ninja turtles swiftly left the store, leaping into the shadows of the night. After closing the door behind them, she had only just turned her back to the entrance before she heard the door creak, followed by Don’s voice once again.

“Uh- you might want to be careful- he has the potential for arm chewing now.”

“Excuse me-“

However, as she spun on her heels to address her friend, he had already left, the door also having been closed. With an exasperated sigh, she shook her head and made her way up to her apartment, carrying the small yellow alien in her arms, who by this point had buried his snout in her woollen sweater.

A couple of hours passed and the turtles had yet to return from their nightly patrol. Having finished her dinner and collected leftovers in a spare bowl for Dash, April slumped back onto her crimson couch, the small alien sleeping contently on the cushion next to her. As she lifted the remote to turn on the small television across the room, her head turned to look down at the creature. Taking care not to wake him up, she gently shifted Dash onto her lap. It had taken a while to get him used to the sudden change in surroundings, and she didn’t want to disturb the peace she had finally acquired. After briefly running her hand across his back, her fingers slid down to his jaw and cautiously felt around his teeth.

“Well you certainly do have a good set of fangs there, Dash.” She followed with a sigh. “No wonder they left you here…that’s some abnormally fast dental development.”

Looking down at the furry creature on her lap, she smiled faintly. Before she could think about anything else she heard a loud, harsh knock at the window, causing her and Dash to flinch upright, the alien’s long ears perked up. April got to her feet as Dash hopped off her lap, soon making her way over to the window where a familiar, but not entirely welcome, face beamed at her with a confident grin. She hesitantly opened up the window, allowing the largely built man to scramble through.

“Why can't you just use the door like a normal person?”

Casey let out a laugh as he regained his posture, puffing out his chest.

“Where’s the fun in that? I’m being spontaneous!” He made his way over to the couch. “Besides, I tried knockin’ downstairs like five times.”

The young woman put her hands on her hips as she rolled her eyes. It was fairly typical that today of all days the big goof of a man, Casey Jones, would decide to barge into her apartment uninvited. She didn’t particularly dislike his company, but he could have at least called first.

“So- Uh- What are ya up to?”

“Nothing, the guys just stopped by and asked me to-Ah! Wait!”

Her sentence barely finished as a mild screech came from the sofa, Dash scampering onto the floor having nearly been crushed by Casey’s body weight. The startled man pulled a hockey stick out of his bag that he seemed to carry everywhere with him and stepped in front of April as the creature made a dash for the open window. The frantic red-head pushed her friend out of the way to chase after the little alien, but her effort was in vain as he had already escaped, dropping from the window and landing in the street below.

“Oh no…”

She winced as she watched Dash hop back and forth in a panic, soon running across the road to be lost behind the passing traffic. Casey shifted to stand behind her.

“What in the heck was that?”

His answer came partnered with a forceful shove from the woman in front of him.

“You idiot!”

“What?! What’d I do?”

“That was _Dash!_ ”

Casey scratched his head, putting his hockey stick back in his bag with his free hand.

“Y’mean that weird little alien thing the guys got from that space prison place?”

“Yes!”

“Well what was it doing in your apartment?!”

“I was looking after it! And you just scared it right out of the window and into civilization!” April turned back to stare out of the window, hoping to catch another glance of yellow in the darkness. “This isn’t good. I’d better call them.”

As she began to rummage around the room, Casey held up his shell cell.

“Don’t worry, babe, I got this.”

***

The four turtles were only a couple of blocks away when they heard the ringing come from inside Donatello’s bag. They came to a halt on the respective rooftop as their brother fished the cell out of the bag and answered it.

“Hello?”

_“Yo, Don! We gotta talk.”_

“Casey?”

The siblings looked among themselves.

“What does that meat brain want?” Raphael whispered.

“Uh- Casey, can this wait, we’re kinda in the middle of-”

 _“No! Y’gotta listen!”_ The voice boomed from the other end. _“What’s the deal with you guys goin’ off on a street run and not invitin’ me- Hey!”_

The voice changed over to a feminine tone, April having pulled the device away from Casey.

_“Don, we’ve got a problem. Dash is gone.”_

“What do you mean he’s gone?”

Michelangelo sprung to attention, leaping over to his conversing brother.

“What’s he saying? What’s he saying?!”

“Shhh, Mikey!” The turtle hushed before returning to his call. “April, what happened?”

_“I- I opened the window and he got out- he just dropped right into the street and ran off, I don’t know where he went.”_

“Okay, we’ll be right there.”

With the single press of a button, he hung up, turning to address the others.

“Uh, Guys? Here’s something we didn’t anticipate.”

***

Shortly after receiving the alert, the turtles returned to the antique shop, grouping together with Casey and April to get a briefing on the situation. April held her hand to her chest as she calmly explained what had happened. Mikey, on the other hand, was pacing back and forth across the carpet, his hands clamped to his head. His whimpers gradually got louder and louder as he paced until Raph silenced him with a backhand to the head, as the young turtle’s whines had begun to drown out April. Leo made his way over to the open window.

“So he just jumped out onto the street?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t grab him in time.”

“Well work on your reflexes!” Mikey snapped.

Raph tugged on the back of his brother’s bandana.

“Mikey!”

“But now we gotta find him! New York is huge! He’s out there somewhere lost and cold and scared and-”

“Geez, would you put a sock in it?!” Raph folded his arms. “I say good riddance to the thing. Let someone else find it, let it be their problem.”

“How can you say that?!” 

The oldest of the turtles stepped in between the bickering pair, gently pushing them further away from each other before giving them a stern look.

“Enough, guys. Don’t worry, Mikey, we’ll find him.” He turned to look at Donatello. “Don, do we have any way of tracking down Dash?”

Don scratched the back of his head.

“Uh, that’d be a negatory, I’m not so great with combining tracking chips and living organisms. At least not yet.”

“Why didn’cha just put a collar on it?” Casey interrupted.

“I had considered that, but I didn’t think something like this would happen so soon…guess that was poor judgement on my part. Sorry, Mikey.”

“Then it looks like we’re doing this the old fashioned way.” Leo declared as he placed his fist into his palm. He continued onto his plan as he began to point at the various individuals in the room. “Casey and April, you search the more exposed areas on street level. Mikey, you and Raph keep to the more shadowed streets and check the sewer tunnels. Don and I will go to the rooftops to get a wider scope of view. ”

“Okay, but we’ll have to make a stop at the lair first. I’ll need some equipment.”

“Hold it!” Raphael boomed as he took a step forward. “You can’t be serious about chasing down that thing!”

“Raph, not now.” Leo retorted.

“Well I ain’t taking part in this wild goose chase! So what if a stupid little alien goes missing? It isn’t our responsibility!”

“And what if someone like _Bishop_ finds him? Something like this could easily get traced back to us and put everyone in danger. ”

The hot headed turtle gritted his teeth as he withdrew. As much as he hated to cave in, his brother had made a valid point. If something were to happen to his friends or family due to his own suspicions, he would never be able to forgive himself. Deciding to remain silent on the subject, he took one more step back to join Mikey, who was too busy fretting over the loss of his companion to make any sort of remark. Assured that he would no longer be interrupted, Leonardo shifted his attention back to the rest of the group.

“Right, now let’s go find Dash before someone - or _something_ \- else does.”

With a conclusive nod, everyone promptly branched off into their respective pairs to begin the search for the little yellow alien that was now loose in the darkened streets of New York City.

***

The dark sky soon became shrouded with a blanket of clouds, releasing droplets of rain to patter harshly onto the pavements below. Being completely unaware of his surroundings, Dash scampered back and forth across the roads, desperately trying to find a place of shelter or at least familiarity. For a night in the city, there was an unusual lack in traffic, though this did not stop the small creature from getting caught in a few headlights along the way. The sudden downpour was beginning to hinder his vision, along with the sudden blasts of bright lights still having lingering effects on the eyes, and this only caused Dash to feel more stressed. After a brief moment of hesitation, he made one final leap across the puddle stained road to scurry into the nearest alleyway.

Unfortunately for Dash, the street he had chosen to occupy was bustling with tall figures, their large feet hitting the pavement in a hurried pace to get somewhere, some occasionally skimming a nearby puddle. These colossal beings perplexed the small alien. There were similarities in the species’ appearance with the pale-faced characters he had run away from, but none bore any resemblance to the green terrapins that had primarily given him refuge. They all varied in size and exhibited different combinations of fabrics over their skin. Dash’s curiosity caused him to overlook the incoming foot that soon nudged his stomach. The sudden impact stirred him, and once again he bolted towards the alleyway, the overshadowing figure stumbling over his small, nimble body. Promptly hiding behind an abandoned bin bag, the small alien began to catch its breath, poking his head out briefly to look at the large human composing itself. He had but a small opportunity to observe the mysterious looming figure before a bright light flashed across his vision. This surprise caused the alien to recoil back into the shadows, and the large silhouette walked away promptly after, leaving the creature shivering and cowering in the musty narrow passage.

***

An hour passed before the rain eventually lessened down to a light drizzle, the streets now covered in patches of dirty puddles. Due to the sudden downpour, many people had retreated to their homes or nearby bars for shelter, leaving the roads deserted enough for Michelangelo and Raphael to scour the area more freely without being seen. Despite the decline in rain, Raph had gotten soaked enough for his mood to once again go sour, his arms folded and teeth grating against each other as he peered around an alleyway corner with his younger sibling. 

"This is so stupid, we've been looking for ages and still nothin'. Can't we just go home now?"

"No way! The streets are clearer now so we have a better chance of spotting him!"

Raph tipped his head back and sighed in frustration.

"Just give it up, Mikey! That thing is gone!"

Ignoring his brother, Mikey carefully made his way to the next alleyway, beginning to look in trash cans and behind abandoned knick-knacks. Raphael shook his head, sighing once again before following. A ringing sound made him stop in his tracks and dart behind a nearby bin bag. It wasn't until he caught a glimpse of his stomach that he realised the noise was coming from the shell cell tucked into his waist-band. He grunted as he answered it.

“What?”

 _“Anything?”_ Leo's voice resonated from the other end.

“No, not a stinkin' thing, and I for one am this close to going home.”

_“Raph, come on...”_

Before Leo could continue to persuade his brother, Donatello carefully took the cell to make his own attempt.

_“Listen, Raph, I know you're still mad about your bag, but could you cooperate just for now? I mean, do you honestly want to hear Mikey moan about this for the rest of your life?”_

No response came from the other end.

_“I wouldn't put it past him.”_

A low grunt escaped Raphael's lips.

“Fine.” He turned to look back over at Mikey, who was now making his way to the next alleyway. “But what if we never find it? We've been all over the freakin' city for hours and got nowhere.”

_“It may not be your forté, Raph, but patience is a virtue in situations like-”_

The young turtle was unable to finish his sentence as it was interrupted by the ecstatic cry from the other end of the call. Mikey waved frantically from the alleyway he had recently searched.

“Raph! Raph! I found him! I found Dash! He's here! Quick!”

Without another thought, Raphael darted over to where his brother stood, peering carefully into the alleyway as he continued to hold the shell cell to his head. Only a metre or so away lay Dash, who had now buried himself amongst numerous bin bags.

_"What was that? Raph? Did you find him?"_

Mikey crouched down to the small creature's level and smiled.

"Yeah, we found him. We'll meet you back at the lair."

He put the cell back into his waistband as he moved carefully to stand not far behind Mikey, watching as he cooed at the alien.

"Hey there, little guy. It's me! Did you miss us?"

At the familiar tone of voice, Dash lifted his head, ears perked and alert. He sniffed the air briefly to detect the turtle's scent, and let out a whimper as two large hands carefully lifted him out from amongst the trash. Relieved, the young turtle held Dash close to his chest and petted him, running his hand along the cold, damp fur that was now shivering in his arms. Raphael folded his arms, grunting.

"C'mon already, we need to get back. It's freakin' freezing." He pointed a finger at Dash. "Even he thinks so."

Michelangelo blinked as his brother turned to make his way to the nearest manhole cover. He promptly hurried to his heel, a large grin filling up his face.

"You do care!"

Raph turned his head to glare at him.

"I do not, I told you we should've gotten rid of that thing! Look at the trouble it's caused and we've barely had it a week!" He faced his brother, staring him down as the light rain continued to leave trickles down their reptilian skin. "I'm tellin' you, bro, that thing is bad news and as soon as we get back it has to go."

"That's not fair! He's just scared! Wouldn't you be if Casey's giant butt came crashing down towards you?"

"This isn't funny, what if it had gotten caught by someone?"

"Well he didn't, did he? Besides, it won't happen again, look at how scared he is!"

Raph's gaze met with the small creature in Mikey's arms. Still trembling, Dash sneezed, and looked up at the turtle with wide, fearful eyes. Mikey held him up towards Raph's nose.

"How can you say no to that face?"

Almost certain the alien's dark grey eyes got even larger, Raphael let out a frustrated grunt.

"You're both annoyin' as heck, you know that?"

"Is that a yes?"

Raph turned to continue down the street.

"Raph?"

"We need to get back to the lair before everyone worries. Hurry up."

With a brief exchange of looks with Dash, the younger brother shrugged before following, face beaming as his newly reunited companion buried himself into his chest once more.

Back at the lair everyone had gathered together, Dash fast asleep in Michaelangelo's bed after a seemingly long series of examinations from April and Donatello. Assured that he was healthy and unharmed, they left him to rest as they discussed among themselves. Raphael continued to press that the alien should be removed or at least detained, but his advances were expectedly shot down. The verdict remained that more time was required for observation on Dash's behaviour, and that it would be wise to introduce him to the topside world gradually, meaning no visits to the shop for some time - which April happily agreed to. 

"He just needs more time to adjust to his surroundings," Said Donatello. "I'm sure within a couple of weeks he'll be a lot calmer and know his way around enough not to get lost so easily."

Raphael cringed at the mention of 'weeks' as a time frame, but held his tongue. Klunk brushed up against the agitated turtle, seeming to soothe him slightly and allowing him to continue listening to the conversation.

"In the meantime, we should all be able to get back to our routines. As for your bag, Raph, I should be able to fix it up if I take a look at it - although it...may not be quite as sturdy as before." He paused briefly. "Unless you can find me some fresh sand, that is."

Mikey's eyes widened as he stood up in excitement.

"Beach trip?!"

"No, Mikey."

"Awww."

Biting the inside of his cheek, he sat down again as the group's chuckles began to echo through the hall, not so much as even stirring the small alien that slept soundly in one of the connecting rooms.

***

"Evidence, you say?" 

Agent John Bishop stood in the middle of his main lab, taking off a pair of white latex gloves as he loomed over the young boy in front of him.

"Y-Yes, sir. Of a real, live alien - this time I'm sure of it!"

The boy held up his phone to show off the find, his face filled with determination. Screwing up his eyes to try and make out the image, it took a minute or so before Bishop felt a smile creep upon his face at the view before him.

"Interesting." He took the boy's phone. "Looks like you'll have some more work cut out for you. I want you to investigate this as much as possible, check other possible sightings, the area you saw it in, everything."

"Yes, sir!"

"We need to capture this... _creature_ , as soon as possible. If it does turn out to be an alien, we'll need to take immediate action and make sure it doesn't pose a threat to mankind."

The boy before him nodded, taking his phone back when handed to him. Receiving a pat to the shoulder, he promptly made his exit.

"I'll be right on it!"

Bishop watched intently as he left, scratching his chin as he peered over at the various equipment and documents set up around the room. His grin continued to linger as he walked over to a computer and set his fingers upon the keyboard, the light of the screen vividly reflecting off his glasses.

"It seems a change of focus is in order."


	5. Homunculus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Panic arises when the turtles' new pet alien 'Dash' suddenly falls ill, and when they go seeking help they reach an astonishing realization that their new companion may not be all they seem…

“Donnie! Donnie! Donnie!”

Donatello rolled over in his bed and groaned at the sound of Mikey hollering down below. He’d been up until the early hours working on schematics for the spacecraft, and it was far too early for any of this.

“Mikey,” He pulled his blanket up over his head. “I am not helping you clean up whatever mess you made, deal with it yourself-”

“N-No, it’s not that!”

Light flooded Don’s eyes as his brother lifted the blanket off him, having climbed up with him.

“It’s Dash!” Mikey cried.

“Look, unless he’s somehow escaped again,” Donatello groaned, rubbing his eyes. “I’m not-”

His sentence was cut short by his brother holding out Dash towards him, cradled in his arms and seemingly asleep. He was breathing heavily.

“...helping…"

“Something’s wrong with him…!” The usually jokey turtle clasped his hands together in worry as Donatello took Dash from his arms. “I was trying to get him to eat something for his breakfast but he wouldn’t budge, he’s been like that since I got up.”

“This is unusual…”

After taking a brief moment to examine the alien, he shifted his hand under his chin as he thought to himself. For a creature so lively, this sudden turn would definitely be cause of alarm. It was no wonder Mikey had started to panic. He began to shuffle his way out of his bed, cradling Dash carefully in one free arm and being promptly followed by his worried brother. They both made their way over to Donatello’s workspace, where he placed the creature down on the desk and shone a bright light over him to better illuminate it’s features. He then gradually took his time to look over the limp body, with Mikey trying to peek over at every angle he could. 

“Hey guys,” Leonardo greeted, holding up a slice of bitten toast. “What are you doing?”

“Something’s wrong with Dash, Leo!”

“Wrong? Like what?” He frowned. “I mean, Mikey you did think he was choking on potato chips that one time and all he was doing was hacking up a hairball.”

“This isn’t the time to joke around, bro!”

“Calm down, Mikey.” Don cooed from his station. “Remember that he’s an alien. Maybe this is some sort of hibernation for him.”

“No, Don! I’m tellin’ you, something isn’t right!”

Donatello sighed as he ran his hand over Dash’s chest. His breathing certainly was extremely heavy, even for a ‘hibernation’ state. He wanted to assure his brother as best he could, but even he had to admit that he was starting to feel concerned. Perhaps the strain of Earth’s living conditions was finally getting to the poor thing? He couldn’t know for sure.

With little else to go on, he looked around for a device that he then carefully placed inside Dash’s mouth. However, as he did so he was shocked to see that once again the creature’s teeth had changed in shape, almost capped looking.

“This is odd…” He muttered to himself, promptly using the device in his hand to take Dash’s temperature. “...His core temperature is pretty high too. Mikey, did you notice this?”

“N-Notice what?” The brother shuffled over to look at his fuzzy friend, Don pointing towards the newly developed teeth. “Woah...No way, they didn’t look like that yesterday!”

“I’ve also noticed his fur is a lot finer, it’s even shedding more profusely in some areas.”

Leo suddenly grew concerned, and walked over to join them at the desk.

“So...What does that mean? What do we do?”

“I don’t know...The predictability of Dash is seriously hard to gauge. This could be normal for him, but it could be something fatal. There’s no way to know for sure.” He frowned. “Well...Not for me, at least…”

Leonardo placed a hand on his back in support. Mikey on the other hand, began having a full-blown freakout.

“ _FATAL_ ? WHAT DO YOU MEAN **_FATAL_ **?! DONNIE Y’GOTTA DO SOMETHING-” A slap to the head interrupted him. “OW!”

“Calm down.” Leo scolded.

“I’m sorry, Mikey…” Don sighed again, rubbing his head. “I wish I knew, really I do.”

Michelangelo - not wishing to hear the negativity - quickly but carefully swept the small alien up from the table into his arms, making his way towards his room.

“Well, why don’t we take him to a vet?”

Leo almost dropped his toast at the suggestion, coughing for a moment before patting his chest to ease the food going down. He turned around to watch his brother as he searched through the rooms and main hall.

“Mikey, he’s an alien - we can’t take him to a vet!”

Donatello nodded in agreement as he stepped away from his desk, trying to follow Mikey despite how frantically he was walking around.

“I know you’re worried, but use your head! We can’t just- I mean, no one is going to- ...Okay what are you looking for?”

“A blanket!” His brother exclaimed as he picked up his search target and began to wrap up Dash in the cloth. “There’s gotta be someone out there who can help Dash, and I’m gonna find them.”

His wrapping motion was blocked by Leo grabbing one of his wrists, staring down at him as he continued to hold his food in his free hand. The toast had already gone cold but at this point he was reluctant to lose out on finishing his breakfast simply because his younger brother couldn’t keep a clear head. His tone became a bit more sinister than usual.

“Calm down for a second, we need to think about this.”

“We don’t have time to think about it, Leo!” Suddenly an idea hit the turtle. “What about Leatherhead? He could help, right?”

The team leader loosened his grip on his brother’s wrist as he turned to look over at Donatello, who had also stopped in his tracks. Don felt under his chin for a moment. He hadn’t even considered Leatherhead, though it had been a while since they’d had any contact with their reptilian friend. If there was anyone that had a chance of safely examining their alien pet, however, it was certainly him.

“That...May actually be a good call.” He muttered. “It also means we don’t need to go to the surface.”

The youngest of the three beamed, now able to punch the air in triumph with Leo’s grip on him slacking. Normally he would revel in the fact he had a bright idea for once, but his concern for Dash far outweighed his cockiness this time around. Giving his brothers little time to argue, he made a quick leap for the exit to the lair, being sure to keep a safe grip on the blanketed bundle in his arms.

“Then what are we waiting for?! Let’s go!” He exclaimed, waving with a free arm.

Feeling this was the safest course of action, and also having mild concern for the alien held by Mikey, Donatello began to gather some gear off his desk to stash away in his usual travel bag. He shouldn’t need any of it, but it was always good to be prepared - as he had proven on many of their outings in the past. A few steps away Leonardo sighed, taking the final unsatisfying bites of his cold toast, and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before making way to where his brothers were gathering.

“Raph isn’t going to be happy about this.”

***

Sure enough, less than 10 minutes later the group of turtles had been joined by their hot-tempered sibling, who was making little attempt at hiding his disapproval as he stomped through the sewer passages behind the rest of the group. Not only had he been roused from a perfectly good nap, but now they were having to deal with even more problems caused by the alien “pet” he had so adamantly objected to on a seemingly regular basis.

“I told you guys that thing was gonna be nothin’ but trouble!” He growled.

Donatello, who continued to face forward despite the echoing grumbles from Raphael, examined the tunnel walls with his flashlight, being sure to keep their path illuminated in front of them. The non-stop bickering from his brothers behind him had made the walk seem unusually long and it was beginning to make him wonder if they’d somehow gone in the wrong direction, despite him knowing full well where the old subway tunnel was. He was the one that found it in the first place after all. 

After a while Raphael began to quieten down, folding his arms and biting the inside of his cheek as he tried to keep his temper in check. He had no problem yelling, but he’d already had to deal with three lectures from Leo and one was more than enough. All that could be heard were the pit-pats of their feet on the ground, with the occasional rat squeak and splashing of sewer water down the canal. It was a short while before any of them spoke up again.

“Hey…” Raphael stopped in his tracks. “You guys hear that?”

His brothers stopped in unison, turning to look at him as he looked up towards the ceiling. After letting the silence continue for another moment, they were all able to hear the same sound. Donatello aimed his torch light up on the ceiling to show the nearby manhole cover, water rhythmically dripping from it’s poorly sealed edges. From it there emanated a selection of muffled voices and clattering, to which Raphael decided to investigate.

“Raph, what are you doing?!” Mikey cried out, taking a step forward.

“I’m gonna check it out, there’s somethin’ goin’ on up there.”

“It’s New York City, there’s _always_ something going on!”

“Mikey has a point, Raph.” Don added. “If we want Dash to get seen to, we should keep going.”

Raphael ignored his brothers’ pleas and continued on his way to the ladder that led towards the manhole, eager to get a look at what was happening above. Once at the top, he carefully lifted the heavy lid with his palm, only allowing the slightest view so as not to be spotted. The sounds got louder and he could just about make out the figures causing the commotion in question. 

“Yo guys, there’s some Purple Dragons guys up there.”

Leo put his hands on his hips, moving over to the base of the ladder. As much as he was concerned about their current situation, if the Purple Dragons were involved with something it couldn’t be anything good.

“What’s going on?”

“I dunno, but there’s one guy yellin’ and the others are carrying a bunch’a stuff.”

“Stolen goods I’ll bet.” The leader sighed, turning to look at his remaining brothers.

Mikey remained fidgety and cautiously held the bundled Dash close to his chest, while Donatello rubbed the back of his neck as he contemplated what to do. They could of course split up, but if Leo and Raph needed their help then they’d be stuck. Not to mention dealing with thefts used a bit extra man power for hoisting the stolen items alone. Reading the conflict on his brother’s face, Leonardo took a step forward as he began to speak.

“Okay, how about we take Dash first, and then we leave him at-”

His sentence was cut off by the sound of the manhole cover slipping back into place. As they all looked towards it, they saw that Raphael had already made his way onto the surface and left them behind. Leo clenched his fists by his side and gritted his teeth, barely speaking through them so as not to make too much noise.

“Raph! Raph!!” With an exasperated sigh he slapped his forehead. “For crying out loud.”

He followed up the ladder soon after, shooting his younger brothers an apologetic look before he hopped up through the hole above. Donatello rushed to the ladder and grabbed onto one of the steps.

“Leo, wait! You guys!” The turtle looked over at Mikey, then one more time at the manhole before looking back over at his brother. “We should help, but...We’ll make it quick.”

“Don, no, we can’t!”

All Donatello could bring himself to do was shake his head meekly before swiftly making his way out of the sewer exit, Michelangelo running over and watching after him with an almost betrayed look. For a moment he turned around to make his own way, taking only a couple of steps before stopping. He wouldn’t forgive himself if he abandoned his brothers, what seemed like a tame robbery could become anything much worse. Simultaneously he would regret not getting his little companion the help he needed when it mattered most. Realizing he would feel regret either way, he turned back towards the manhole exit. His brother was right, they should make it quick, and it would certainly go a lot quicker if he was there to help. The young turtle took one more look at the creature in his arms, pulling back some of the cotton fabric to get a better look. His breathing had become more shallow than heavy and the blanket was covered in even more of the fur he seemed to be shedding. Mikey inhaled sharply and closed his eyes tightly, giving the small alien a gentle squeeze before looking up at the night sky peeking through the hole above and proceeding to follow his brothers to the surface.

  
  


Once his feet touched the pavement, Michelangelo carefully shuffled his feet to place the cover back over the manhole to hide their tracks. The air was colder on the surface, but he had little time to think about the weather when his brothers had already initiated a brawl with the small group of gang members - most likely started by Raphael. Catching a glimpse of a bulky figure heading towards his hot-headed brother from behind, Mikey’s reflexes kicked in as he made a leap for the assailant. The thug was brought to the ground purely from the weight of the kick and Raph turned at the sound of the collision, holding back an opponents’ club weapon with his two sai.

“Decided to join us, huh?” 

“I’m not talkin’ to you!” Mikey barked in response, keeping the cotton bundle safely cradled in his arms as he turned around to give his previous victim another kick as he attempted to rise to his feet again. 

“Oh great, another one! Why’s there so many of yous costumed freaks?!” One of the thugs exclaimed as he tried to fight off Leonardo’s katana with a pair of trash can lids. “Get the loot outta here!”

As one of the thug’s companions moved to grab one of the bags of stolen goods, it was immediately swept up out of his reach by the currently upside-down Donatello, who remained balanced using his legs to hang off the railings of a nearby fire-escape stairway.

“I’ll be taking those, my good gentlemen.” 

He swiftly brought his bo staff around with his free hand to bat away anyone that made an attempt to grab the bags back. This caused Leo’s adversary to throw his arms in the air in frustration and yell, leaving him open for a harsh kick to the stomach.

Meanwhile, one of the taller Purple Dragon members snuck out from the shadows and held Michelangelo back with a short piece of rope. Sneering as the turtle yelped and squirmed to get free, he noticed the bundle held in his captive’s arms.

“Hoh? What’s this you got, huh?” In a swift movement he kicked Michelangelo away from him as he snatched the wrapped blanket away from his grasp. “Somethin’ valuable I’ll bet!”

“Hey!” Mikey growled as he turned around to retaliate, only to be intercepted by Raphael running in with a powerful shoulder bash in an attempt to topple the larger thug over.

However this also caused the bundle to fly out of the man’s hands at a high speed and bounce off the building wall into the vastly shadowed part of the alley. 

“Dash, no!” 

The youngest terrapin yelled harshly as he whipped his nun-chucks out of his belt and charged at the toppled gang member. Just as the man tried to get back on his feet again, he stumbled to try and dodge the flurry of attacks coming his way, barely keeping his balance with every swipe and miss.

“Mikey!” Donatello called out to his enraged brother, only to have his attention snatched away by more of the Purple Dragons beneath him trying to tug the bag of spoils out of his grip. 

He shifted his body weight to swing upright and perch on the railing of the stairwell, holding the targeted bag well out of reach. Using his bo staff to keep his balance, he watched his brothers fighting below him, Leonardo still fending off the leader and his other two brothers cornering the largest member. There didn’t seem to be any other bags around, which meant he was holding the only one. If he kept it away from them long enough while his team mates held the group at bay, they would hopefully give up rather quickly and leave. As the turtle pondered his next move, he barely noticed the light drops of rain that began to pelt against his face. He also failed to notice one of the determined goons just underneath him making an overly confident attempt at hoisting themselves up onto the bars of the emergency escape, the light clattering sounds having quickly been covered up by the neutral sound of rainfall.

Down below, Leonardo dealt a finishing blow to the leader before turning to look over at his brothers. First taking notice of Donatello’s situation, he made a run to build up speed then dropped to the ground in a slide to tackle one of the still grounded group members. Once his target hit the ground with a grunt, he promptly pushed himself to his feet to make a leap for the remaining figure climbing their way towards his brother. Getting a firm grip on the man’s legs, he swings his weight to force a shift in balance, causing the assailant to slip and fall back onto the ground. Only the sound of the body hitting the already puddle-ridden ground with a loud splash snapped Donatello to attention. 

“Watch your back, Don.” Leo called out, wiping some rain from his eyes as he got to his feet once again.

Donatello took this opportunity to hop down from his safe spot and stand next to his brother, swinging the bag of loot over his shoulder.

“Heh, sorry.”

Both of their attention then met the final standing group. Michelangelo made another swing for the looming Purple Dragon, but upon missing once again let out a frustrated grunt before kicking his opponent back. Having cornered the man up against the nearby wall, he spun his nun-chucks idly as he glared up at him and made one final charge towards the thug, yelling louder the smaller he closed the gap between them. However, his attack was halted by Raphael running in to grab him by the shoulders and holding his offending arm in place.

“Woah, easy there, bro!”

The now cowering thug edged himself along the wall and towards his leader, who had since managed to pull himself to his feet.

“Y-You guys are crazy!”

“Ugh,” Groaned the leader, “C’mon boys, let’s get outta here! We’ll get yous guys next time, y’hear?!”

As the turtles regrouped, so did the opposing gang, making a quick dash towards their nearby escape vehicle to leave the scene as soon as they could before they could receive any more punishment. As the sounds of the vehicle’s screeching wheels got further away into the distance, Leonardo wiped off his hands before putting them on his hips, proud of what they’d accomplished. Michelangelo on the other hand remained held in place by Raph, still catching his breath as he continued to seethe a little.

“And you tell me I have anger issues.” Raphael teased.

The teasing was not well met as Mikey tugged his arms free and shuffled away from his brothers, gripping onto his weapons tightly as he looked sternly at them.

“This isn’t funny, Raph! Dash could’ve gotten seriously hurt-” 

He wanted to rant more as the anger was still boiling inside him, but it soon washed away with the rain as he remembered where his small alien companion was. Putting his weapons away back into his belt, he made a dash for the end of the darkened alley. His brothers remained where they stood, slightly taken aback by his angry outburst. Donatello pulled the bag of loot around into view and inspected it closely as he pondered their next move. 

“We should probably try and return some of this stuff.”

“Yeah, hopefully it’s all from the same place.” Leo agreed.

“Their get-away was just around the corner, so it’s probably safe to assume that they got it all from pretty close by.”

Michelangelo ignored the conversation as he rummaged around among bins and trash bags filling up the alley, not taking any notice of the smell being unleashed in the process. The further he got from his brothers the more all he could hear was the rain and his own ruckus. Finally he caught a glimpse of a now soaking blanket sprawled on the ground. About to exclaim his relief, he halted as he got a full view of the bundle in front of him and instead a small yelp escaped his lips.

“Uh...Guys…?”

The trio looked up from the bag of stolen goods and made their way over to where their brother now stood. His now trembling hand lifted to point at the piled blanket, unable to say anything. Struggling to initially see what the problem was, Donatello took his flashlight back out to shine into the darkness, only to have his eyes widen in shock along with his siblings. Where the blanket spread on the ground and had previously held a small reptilian alien creature, there was now a new figure in its place. Covered by the lifts and folds of the fabric was a small, pale body with only medium length reddish hair covering the top of its head. Small trails of steam left the form of the seemingly unconscious body as the rain pelted even harder. The longer they looked it was easy to see that the figure in front of them now definitely resembled that of an adolescent human. All that came out from amongst the silence was an uneasy growl from Raphael.

“...I _told_ you guys this thing would be trouble.”

“That...That’s definitely Dash, right?” Leo uncharacteristically stuttered.

“Y-Yeah, I’m sure of it...I think.” Mikey replied nervously. 

Donatello crouched down beside the body to get a closer look at the subject in front of them. As he shone his torch across it’s face and neck so he could see where to feel for a pulse, he felt startled for a moment. The features looked familiar to him, though he couldn’t quite place where he’d seen them before. He shook his head to get his mind back into focus and inspected the blanket covering the now human form to confirm Michelangelo’s statement.

“This is definitely the same blanket, it’s covered in the fur Dash was shedding.” Donatello got to his feet, rubbing under his chin with his free hand. “And if there’s no sign of the uh…’original’ body...Then it’s probably safe to say this is Dash.”

“Is he okay?” Asked Michelangelo.

“Well, there’s a pulse, and his breathing is still a bit shallow but…” Donatello moved his hand from his chin to rest on his hip. “It isn’t going to help things lying out here in this rain. We should get him back to the lair.”

The initial shock starting to wear off, Leonardo stepped away from the group before turning to address them.

“Alright then, it’s probably best if we split up. Mikey, Don, you guys take Dash back to the lair.” He carefully took the sack of stolen items from Donatello and lugged them over his own shoulder. “Raph and I will return what the Purple Dragons snatched and we’ll meet up back home.”

Raphael agreed with a grunt, moving to stand by the leader and folding his arms. Donatello and Michelangelo gave nods in unison to the plan, the younger of the two showing relief that they were finally going back into the safety of the sewers. They began to go their separate ways, with Mikey carefully picking up the now bulkier and heavier bundle in the blanket, and allowing his brother to open up the manhole cover for them both to jump down, taking care not to rouse the small human now resting in the cradle of his arms.

  
  


***

  
  


It didn’t take long for Leonardo and Raphael to return the stolen goods to their rightful places, giving them some extra time to do a sweep of the surrounding area to make sure no more bandits were lingering. In seemingly no time at all they had already made their way back into the lair, where they found their brothers idle around the television area - Donatello making notes in a small notebook, and Michelangelo crouched by the unconscious figure who was now laid out on the sofa. Master Splinter had also joined them, sitting on the floor and meditating on the situation.

“So, any idea what we’re dealing with here?” Leo raised his hand in greeting, getting straight to the point. 

“Not a clue,” His brother sighed, closing his notepad and folding his arms. “Pulse and breathing are starting to go to normal, but…”

Raphael put his hands on his hips, not looking too happy about the whole ordeal, let alone the doubtful nature of their smartest sibling.

“But what?”

“Well, I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but…” Don continued. “Doesn’t ‘Dash’ look a little...familiar to you guys?”

The other turtles looked at each other in slight confusion. They hadn’t gotten a good look at their new guest since it suddenly appeared, and hadn’t the slightest clue what their brother was talking about. Taking the opportunity, they all peered over at the creature on the couch, having a long, cautious look at its face. Leo’s eyes widened slightly.

“Woah, wait…” He started. “It-...It sorta looks like April, doesn’t it?”

“Exactly.” Donatello walked over to join them. “Doesn’t this look like April if she were younger?”

Michelangelo, still crouched by the sofa, tilted his head and squinted. He couldn’t see the resemblance.

“What?” 

“Now you mention it…” Followed Raph, taking a step back as he scrunched up his face in disapproval. “What’s the deal here?! Now we have some sort of tiny April clone in our house? What the shell is goin’ on?!”

The trio bring their fingers to their lips in a unity to silence their hot tempered brother. Not enjoying being told to simmer down, he looked as if about to shout again but was stopped by Splinter gently placing his hand on his arm in an attempt to soothe his temper.

“Calm yourself, my son. We are all concerned.”

“I called April and Casey over, just to confirm it.” Donatello said as he looked back down at the figure one more time. “I don’t know why it looks like her, but...I’m certain that has something to do with the sudden change here.”

During the whole conversation, Mikey had remained staring at who he used to call Dash. He couldn’t wrap his head around it either, less than an hour ago he was carrying around a small alien pet in his arms, and now they were looking down at a seemingly comatose miniature April O’Neil. At least, according to the others - he still failed to see the connection.

***

Having told them it was an emergency, April and Casey made their way into their friends’ home in quick time by taking Casey’s motorcycle. Still a bit wobbly from the frantic journey, the red haired woman stumbled over towards the communal area, Casey giving her a clumsy pat on the back as he went to join her. The group all exchanged looks and nods.

“H-Hey guys.” April raised her hand in greeting, hoping conversation would ease her stomach. That hope was soon shattered by the sight of the human on the sofa just a few steps away. 

“Woah! You guys weren’t kidding huh?” Casey failed to keep his voice down, leaning over the back of the sofa to get a closer look. “Is this really your alien pet thing?”

“This-...This is crazy!” April gulped. “Not to mention a little unsettling…Why does it look like me?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Explained Donatello, who was standing next to her.

Before their conversation could continue, a faint groaning sound came from the figure everyone’s attention was focused on. The look-a-like slowly blinked their eyes open as they regained consciousness, quickly widening them as they realized they were awake. They shot upright, looking at their arms held out in front of them. This action caused the group to flinch in shock, Michelangelo leaping to his feet and letting out a girlish scream, which in turn caused the small redhead to yelp in response. The scene was a bit familiar. Silence followed the unforeseen event for a moment, the youthful character scanning the room and seeming to relax as it recognised the faces around it. Mikey took a step back, covering his mouth. He could see the resemblance now, but there was one thing different that stood out. The look-alike’s eyes didn’t reflect April’s emerald green irises, instead they were a contrasting lavender hue. With a clearing of his throat, Leonardo raised his hand and calmly tried to break the silence.

“Hey there...’Dash’.”

It almost seemed to take a while for them to register the words, but the clone looked straight up at him with little change in their expression.

“...Hey…”

As expected, the voice that came out also sounded like April, just in a slightly higher pitch. The original April rubbed her arms, unable to say anything in the moment. This was all too bizarre, it was like looking in a mirror to the past. With the ice having been slightly broken, Donatello took it upon himself to continue softening the atmosphere a bit more.

“How are you feeling?”

There was another pause as the miniature April looked over at the him. It was unclear if they were taking a while to understand the words being spoken, or if they were struggling with their own words that they wanted to say.

“I’m...Okay, I think.” Their face didn’t really show that, but they continued on as they moved their gaze to look at their own hands. “I’m...sorry, I know this is a…strange question, but...What do I look like right now?”

Their speech remained slow and staggered, almost as if they’d never spoken before, and by the time they finished their sentence the group looked amongst themselves. Luckily, Donatello had some reflective materials on his nearby workbench, which he promptly shifted to grab one of and hold out towards their guest. The look-alike stared at their reflection, bringing their fingers to touch their cheek in confirmation that they were indeed looking at their own face. Just behind the purple masked turtle they caught a glimpse of April, who was still looking slightly bewildered, and they then realized the situation.

“Ah, I see…” They lowered their head, looking at their lap. “I...suppose I should explain.”

“Oh you bet you should!” Raphael growled, folding his arms and glaring down at the clone.

“Raph, come on-” Donatello started.

His interjection was interrupted by Master Splinter’s own, as he wrapped his hands over his cane and suggested they made some tea for their guest. With some forceful dragging from Leonardo, Raphael grumbled his way into the kitchen. It only took a few minutes to prepare the requested refreshments, which didn’t seem to have been long enough for the hot-headed turtle to fully calm down, though he seemed like he was now holding his tongue. After being handed the hot beverage and allowing themselves to enjoy the warmth cupped in their hands, the small redhead began to explain in their continued staggered and unsure speech.

The figure in front of them now claimed to be a member of an alien race known as the Cytolerus, an organism capable of replicating the form of any other living being, or static object. However, the Cytol sitting in front of them seemed unexpectedly unsure of their own species and origin, stating that they had very little recollection of where they came from. This fact only continued to stir the pot of Raphael’s suspicion and he refused to lighten his glare from the alien the entire time that they spoke. Conversely, Michelangelo, suddenly now intrigued by the concept of an alien with shape shifting superpowers, sat himself down by the sofa again, leaning forward slightly as he listened intently.

As it turned out, the Cytolerus race had now become a seriously hunted species, being claimed across the galaxies as a ‘Class X’ threat and being sought out by almost any realm within reach of the Galactic Federation and their various ‘Collection Divisions’. Upon hearing this information, Donatello looked up from the notepad he had been writing in once again, tapping his pen against his cheek. It was surprising to him that this supposed hunt had only just surfaced, however before he got to make a comment, his brooding brother had already begun to holler from across the room as his patience finally snapped.

“So _you’re_ the ones those Galactic Federation bozos are after!” 

“Y-...Yes.” The alien nervously replied.

It seemed like the hunt was incredibly generalized. _An entire species being hunted across the galaxy? Why?_ Donatello pondered to himself as Raphael continued to bark away.

“I said it, didn’t I? This thing is askin’ for trouble! It’s a freakin’ fugitive!”

Michelangelo hopped to his feet, holding an arm out in their guests’ defense.

“Hey! You don’t know that!”

“Don’t you remember what those Galactic Police were talkin’ about? They arrested us for having _‘destructive foreign matter’._ These _aliens_ could be capable of anything!”

The whole time Raphael spoke, the April look-alike kept their gaze low, gripping onto the rim of their cup. He wasn’t entirely wrong, though the wording was a little rough. Donatello, still mulling over the information, could begin to see where Raphael, and even the Galactic Federation were coming from.

“It would certainly be hard to track down a creature capable of copying another form cell-for-cell. ” He mused. “Theoretically speaking, if the whole form - say, a human - had been replicated exactly then any type of biological testing done would just show that they were in fact just a human. Apply that logic to a criminal mind or dangerous species and you’re going to get some pretty shady stuff.”

“But that’s not fair!” Mikey moaned. “How do they know if someone’s a criminal or not?”

“It’s not exactly fair, no, but it’s probably precaution.” Leo added.

Master Splinter closed his eyes, having listened patiently.

“Suspicion can bring out the ugliest side of a person, no matter how level-headed or intelligent they may be.”

A short silence followed his statement. Raph felt the need to argue more, but his sensei’s words almost felt like a slight dig at him, even if he was merely stating a fact. The pause allowed April - the original - to gather her thoughts and step forward, clearing her throat before she spoke.

“I just have one question…” She began, rubbing her arm slightly. “Why...me?”

“That’s a point…” Leo scratched his chin. “I mean, why not make yourself look like a different human altogether, something more distinguishable?”

It took a moment for the Cyloterus to fully understand what they were being asked. The taller woman probably wanted to know why they now looked exactly like her.

“Oh...Well, that’s...a bit complicated.” The clone thought carefully about how to put their thoughts into words. “I’m nowhere near experienced enough yet to copy a form just by looking at it, our abilities don’t quite work that way.”

Michelangelo deflated a little at this revelation, the morphing abilities now seeming less like superhero powers in his mind. As the look-alike continued, they made it clear that once they had realized that the dominant species on the planet were not, in fact, walking talking terrapins - or rodents for that matter - they decided it would be best to start to blend in by taking on a new form, for if they remained as ‘Dash’ on Earth they were surely bound to get caught again.

“To be able to copy the form of something, I still need to come into contact with it so I can...feel it out. Since I was only close enough with one being of this kind, I had just one frame of reference to work from.” They looked over at April apologetically. “That’s why I got so...um...bite-y with you for a while in my other form. I’m sorry.”

Despite the eeriness of hearing the voice of her younger self talking back at her, the explanation almost seemed to calm April down a bit. Her shoulders stopped tensing and she folded her arms around her waist. Donatello smiled a bit at the new information, interested in the genetic mechanics discussed.

“So you’re able to analyse something’s molecular make-up and then replicate that feeling in your own cells? Fascinating.”

Unfortunately the alien wasn’t able to confirm or deny his theory, as they barely understood any of the words that came out of his mouth. Before she could even think to respond, another question was pelted at her, this time from Michelangelo, who was still poised by the sofa and leaning forward as he began to interrogate.

“Wait a sec- If you’re supposed to be a ‘ _clone’_ or whatever, then how come you’re so small? And your eyes are totally wrong! Plus, what is the deal with-”

His barrage was interrupted by Master Splinter nudging him with his cane. The rat cleared his throat as a warning, causing his son to recoil slightly as he rubbed the back of his head. Splinter then took over, a soothing tone in his voice.

“I believe that is enough questions for now.” He paused as he gave the small alien a once-over. “Though...Things may get a little confusing.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Having two Aprils wasn’t going to be very feasible, even in the short term, and so they then suggested that the alien alter their form, even just a little, to make them more distinctive. The clone was unsure of themselves making alterations without any reference, but the group reassured them that as long as they changed enough for them all to tell the red-headed pair apart a little easier - not to mention make the alien much less conspicuous - then whatever they did would probably turn out fine.

Donatello passed them the reflective material from before so that they could have better visibility for what they were doing. They lifted the mirroring surface, staring at their replicated face.

“C-...Could you maybe not look while I do this…?”

They were clearly embarrassed, probably because they were still inexperienced as previously mentioned. After some exchanging of looks and nods, the group all turned around to face away from the alien. Michelangelo, however, had to be tugged multiple times as he attempted to turn around, his curiosity getting the better of him as their guest began to focus on making small changes to the arrangement of their face. Having no physical reference made it incredibly difficult, but eventually they got to a point where they felt their features differed enough from how they were before. After gently feeling the roundness of their new cheeks with their fingertips they began to stare down their reflection again.

Something else needed to change. The hair was one of the more striking parts of their appearance, so that seemed like the next best step. The reddish strands began to shrink just above their shoulders and curve a bit more around their freshly shaped face, with a set of bangs to cover their forehead - they’d caught glance of the style in a papered medium lying around in the lair and it felt like a good addition to have for extra distinction. 

They then changed the colour for good measure, closing their eyes as they tried to visualise what they wanted. Once their eyelids reopened they could see the new shade of amber framing their face. It seemed to work. Feeling confident they’d changed enough, they lowered the mirror and cleared their throat as a signal for everyone to turn around again, expressions of mild surprise and intrigue washing upon them.

“Hey, not bad!” Mikey grinned, giving the fresh faced alien girl some finger-guns.

The alien tilted their head slightly as they tried to decipher the hand gesture, half-heartedly mimicking him with her own fingers. They didn’t understand the body language, but the words made sense at least. April smiled, almost sighing with relief.

“He’s right, you look good.”

The compliment made the girl smile a bit, more so with the others nodding in agreement. It was relieving to know that one of her first times morphing in any capacity without reference hadn’t gone totally awry. One person, however, refused to nod and stepped forward with indignation. 

“Are you guys out of your freakin’ minds?!” Raphael started. “We are not letting that thing stay here any longer, there’s no point in getting so chummy with it.”

“Raphael, that is quite enough.”

“But- Master Splinter-”

Master Splinter shook his head, indicating he wasn’t going to argue this any further. Raphael gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. How many times was he going to be dejected for opposing this... _thing_? Leonardo, sensing the impending outburst, put his hand on his brother’s shoulder.

“Come on, Raph. At the very least, it’s temporary.” He looked over at the amber-haired girl. “How about doing it on a trial basis? Until she gets used to her new form. What harm could it do?”

Raphael tutted as he pushed Leo’s hand off him. That was the exact point he was trying to make, there’s no telling the harm that it could do. It was becoming clear he wasn’t going to win this case, so he merely pointed at the small alien, his eyes lowering into a harsh glare.

“Fine.” He growled. “But I don’t have to like it.”

With a swift turn on his heel he began to walk off, heading towards the elevator. Leonardo sighed and scratched the back of his head, accompanied by his father bowing his head in apology.

“I am sorry for my son’s harsh words.”

“He’ll come around.” Leo added with a smile as extra reassurance, though admittedly he was a little unsure himself.

“O-Oh, no, that’s okay...I can...I can understand where he’s coming from-” 

The girl’s sentence was cut short by the group’s united flinching. It hit all of them suddenly - she hadn’t changed her voice. Donatello carefully pointed this out to her, and she brought her hand to her neck bashfully. She’d completely forgotten that her voice would also give herself away, but changing that was going to be even more complicated. With a deep breath she closed her eyes and focused, trying to manage the positioning of her vocal cords and larynx. Unable to see what she was doing, the process made her anxious so she tried to only make a slight change in the same way she had with her outer features. Making sure she’d shifted things correctly so there weren’t any health hazards, she opened her mouth to allow a couple of random sounds to come out as she tested her new vocals. They remained in the same level of pitch as before, but there was an altered timber to the sound of it, slightly softer.

“How’s...this?”

The voice was different. Once again she was met with a finger-gun gesture from Mikey, an action she still couldn’t understand. Donatello and April found themselves leaning forward slightly, intrigued by the process behind the sudden change. Everyone had begun to mellow now that the alien in front of them significantly differed from her original counterpart, Michelangelo now having perched himself on the back of the sofa, kicking his legs playfully. He still couldn’t believe that just a couple of hours ago this girl was a small yellow creature that could fit in just one of his arms. Master Splinter, still resting his hands upon his cane, bowed his head at the girl gratefully. 

“We appreciate your efforts. I understand it must be difficult for you, Miss-...”

The group went into an awkward silence at that moment. What on earth were they supposed to call this girl? All she had mentioned was her species name, but nothing other than that. As he had been thinking about his previous fuzzy companion, Michelangelo had the same thought as everyone else, and lacking the same tact he was the first one to blurt out the question that was on all their minds.

“Uh...Do we still call you ‘Dash’?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Mikey,” Leonardo interjected. “I’m sure she has a real name.”

The alien stopped mid-sip from their already cooling tea as they realized they were being spoken to. Lowering their cup from their lips, they tilted their head.

“Name…?”

“Yeah! What do we call you?” Mikey beamed, hoping that ‘Dash’ was still a viable option for some reason.

“Um...I don’t know...I don’t...have a ‘name’...”

Donatello made his way back over towards the television area from the computers - having spent the past few minutes of the conversation shuffling papers around on his desk - placing one hand on his hip.

“Well, what would you like us to call you?”

The poor Cytolerus gave him a baffled expression, unsure of what to say. They hadn’t spoken to other living beings in so long, the whole experience was beginning to get confusing as well as tiring. They simply hadn’t needed a name to be called by, so they didn’t have the slightest idea on what they wanted. 

“Oh, oh!” Exclaimed Mikey, raising his hand with pure optimism. “How about ‘April Junior’!”

“You bonehead, we can’t call her that.” Don scolded.

Casey then added. “Yeah dude, that’s just too weird.” 

“Hrm…” Mikey pondered for a moment, scratching his head. This was going to be a tough one.

At least two minutes went by of the group debating between various names, the suggestions seemingly getting more ridiculous as the time went on and with no suitable reaction from their subject to give them aid. After finally convincing Michelangelo that the girl was not to be named like a superhero or a dog, a particular physical feature on the little clone stood out to April and she posed another suggestion.

“How about Violet?”

“ _Violet?_ ” Michelangelo followed April’s gaze to stare down at the alien, scrunching up his snout in disapproval. That name was way too frilly sounding.

Donatello tilted his head slightly, and as his human friend’s line of thought eventually hit him he brought his thumb to his chin with an audible “hm”. Noticing the others look like they were slowly coming to an agreement, Mikey grumbled slightly in frustration. The name really didn’t suit her, and if he wasn’t quick, he’d be stuck having to call their new shapeshifting alien buddy “Violet” for who knows how long. Violet. _Violet?_ Eugh, no way.

Suddenly, an idea came to him, and he snapped his finger in realization.

“Oh hey, I got it! How about shortening ‘Violet’ to ‘Vi’?”

“Vi?” April questioned.

“Yeah! And we’ll give it a cool spelling! Like… Uh…” He paused and stuttered slightly as he tried to come up with a new variant to the name. “V-...Y-...E! Right! That way it sounds like an earth nickname, but _looks_ like a cool alien name.”

April and Donatello gave each other the same uncertain look. Even if it was a compromise, it was probably a bad idea to have an alien trying to blend into human society with a name that ‘looked like an alien name’, but they proceeded to shift their gaze to the small figure sitting beside them as it was ultimately their decision to make. Their expression didn’t seem to change with any of the other suggestions, which didn’t exactly scream enthusiasm though it also didn’t object to anything either. The girl shrugged lightly as Mikey leaned forward, his expression filled with hope.

“Um...Sure. That’s fine.” 

She honestly didn’t care one way or the other, but it seemed to mean a lot to the excitable terrapin, who immediately made a fist-pump action at the acceptance of his suggestion.

“Sweet!” He smiled, hopping to his feet. “Then from now on, we’ll call you ‘Vye’.”

_Vye._

It wasn’t a sound she’d heard before, but admittedly it had an appeasing ring to it that she couldn’t quite comprehend. With a new form, and a new name, it began to hit ‘Vye’ that a new section of her life was about to begin and it made her slightly nervous. She had no idea how long she’d been in that previous form and there was going to be a lot she’d have to get used to no doubt, but the terrapins and humans that had looked after her until now still seemed to be welcoming. She was incredibly grateful for that. Where did she go from here, though? Picking up on the girl’s wavering energy, Master Splinter stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort, the other remaining atop his cane. 

“Welcome to our home, Miss Vye.”

Although she had already been living there for a couple of weeks now, he felt it necessary to provide a proper greeting to her in her new form. Appreciating the gesture, the girl nodded and smiled a little. April watched the scene fondly, unfolding her arms after enough time had passed and placed her hands on her hips.

“Now all we have to do is get you some clothes.” She remarked. “I can’t believe the guys didn’t at least give you a dry blanket.”

The young turtles looked amongst themselves sheepishly, under the whole shock they had totally forgotten to do such a simple task. Vye didn’t seem to mind one way or the other, but the way April spoke it sounded like it was important, so she nodded in agreement.

After some more casual banter, April offered to run back home to find something that the poor girl could wear in the meantime. Master Splinter and the turtles split up into their own respective activities to allow the alien some space, Mikey once again having to be tugged at his headband to stop him from pelting the atmosphere with never ending questions and commentary. Vye looked down at her reflection in the cup she had forgotten was still on her lap, taking in her reflection. She went to sip the drink but immediately regretted it. The beverage did not taste good at this temperature. It didn’t take long of sitting in silence for the weight of the afternoon to hit her, her eyes gradually drooping as she became lulled into a light slumber, holding the blanket around herself for warmth; a difficult task for something still damp. She would later wake to April giving her some warmer coverings, but for now this had to do. After all, it had been a rather tiring day, and she would need the energy for her upcoming days adjusting to this new form. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Vye is finally here! Yes she had a bit of a build-up, haha...But her story now officially begins! (It only took me near a decade to get there, sheesh). This chapter was a little longer than usual but I hope you guys liked it, and I hope you enjoy getting to know Vye and watching her grow.~
> 
> Also I have been considering including the chapter covers and/or other sketches into the fic, either as embedded images or simply bonus links in the A/N. What do you guys think? I post them on my Art SM either way so I'm not too bothered if you guys don't like it and wanna just stick to the text-only. Have a good one!


	6. Interning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having taken on her new form as a human, Vye starts re-adjusting to life in the lair - though it appears that some things will be much easier said than done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who enjoy playing voices in their head for reading these types of things and would like a guide for Vye's, I have currently settled on Christine Marie Cabanos as her voice. Think like a mix of Shiemi from Blue Exorcist and Minori from Tora Dora-  
> That's all I have to say for this chapter! Hope y'all enjoy!

The nightly landscapes of Michelangelo's mind were no different than usual, in fact, this dream was one of his favourites. There was little else to it other than the newly discovered pizza trees that provided varying slices for him to enjoy as he mosied along his merry way. However, something was different this time. A bush covered in...spaghetti? He hadn’t had spaghetti in a long time, why was this here? Still, food was food, and he waltzed over to the bush. He massaged his hands together as he prepared to dig in - after all, there was no need for cutlery in a dream. Before he got a chance to scoop up the stringy pasta, it began to float towards him and smear across his face. He tried to push the strands away but it just continued to writhe around, so much so that it began to tickle his nose. He let out a small sneeze followed by another attempt at trying to beat away the spaghetti, flailing his arms around aimlessly, but the pasta kept tickling. He felt the pressure build up in his nose again, inhaling deeper and deeper until suddenly;

_“AH’TCHOO!”_

The convulsion woke him up instantly, and as he came to terms with his lucidness he continued to feel a slight tickle around his nose. With a yawn he sat himself upright in his bed, stretching out one arm while the other rubbed across his face. 

“Aw man, Klunk...I was having that dream again but I guess you were sleeping on my face-”

As he wiped the remaining sleep out of his eyes, his vision came into focus. It wasn’t cat fur that had been antagonizing his face but a mass of amber-hued hair. Human hair. Seeing the sleeping girl curled up beside him, he let out a high pitched scream as he tumbled backwards to fall off his bed, landing flat on his shell. As his pained groaning resonated from the floor, the girl slowly opened her eyes and began to sit herself up, Klunk joining her as they had both been roused by the sudden ruckus. 

“Vye!” Mikey called up as he got to his feet. “What are you doing in my bed?! You’re supposed to be on the couch!”

Vye looked at him blankly, the drowsiness keeping her eyelids from fully opening. She didn’t understand why the turtle was reacting so harshly.

“I always sleep here…”

“That was when you were ‘Dash’! You can’t do that _now_!”

“Really? Why?”

Mikey pulled himself up towards the high platform of the bed, snatching his pillow from underneath her.

“Well, for starters, you’re way too big!”

“Oh.”

“Now, get out! Out, girl! Yah!” He hurled his pillow at her head before hopping back down to ground level and pointing at the floor as a gesture for her to follow.

Vye still didn’t fully understand, but it was clear she’d done something wrong already. She’d spent the last two weeks snuggling up in this same spot to sleep at night that it had just become a habit, she hadn’t considered that would have to change now she was in a new body. This was all really confusing. After being pelted with the pillow, she yawned in unison with Klunk before carefully climbing down from the platform. Klunk, however, curled up and went back to sleep, much to her envy.

The impact from the fall having woken him up, Mikey proceeded to lead way towards the kitchen, Vye bumbling behind him. Having been a quadruped for so long, she was still adjusting to walking on two feet, not to mention the new strangely lanky legs she had acquired with her new body. The bagginess of the sweats she had been gifted from April didn’t exactly help in the matter either, and the feeling of different materials on her skin was a whole other thing to adjust to. Once they both reached the kitchen, Vye having stumbled multiple times in attempting to get down the ladder in her wobbly new legs, they found themselves met by Leonardo, who turned to them as he closed one of the cupboards he had just been raiding from.

“Mikey, was that you screaming?” He questioned before moving his attention to Vye. “Oh, morning, Vye.”

“Well you would too if you woke up with a face full of alien hair!” His brother exclaimed as he began fumbling in the cupboards for something to eat. Leo looked at him, baffled.

“Uh, what?”

“Vye was in my bed!” His arms now full of various snacks, he closed one of the bottom cupboards with his foot. 

“Oh, I see.” 

Leonardo began to pour cereal from the box he had just grabbed, placing it back before he continued.

“Did you sleep okay, Vye?”

“Hey, don’t ignore me, Leo!” Mikey cried. “What are we supposed to do if she won’t sleep on the couch? I’m not giving up my room again!”

Leo pondered for a moment. His brother had a point, though the rudeness of his complaining right in front of their guest resulted in merely a small glare before telling Mikey to pipe down and looking back at Vye.

Unsure of how to handle the situation, Vye merely nodded in response to Leo’s question, but recoiled slightly as Mikey’s vocal tone rose. She was starting to feel bad for causing such a scene on her first morning in this new form, but no one had told her about the new sleeping etiquette. Opening her mouth to try and say something, she was quickly interrupted by a deep, coarse growling sound that suddenly emitted from somewhere in her body. 

The sound caught the attention of both turtles, their gazes meeting her stomach. This seemed to distract Michelangelo from his previous complaining as he grinned through the pile of snacks he had gathered together in his arms. Chuckling, he shifted so that he could hand her a plastic packet.

“Hungry, huh?”

“A little…” Vye responded as she received the packet.

As Michelangelo began to tear into his own pile of various snacks, Vye stared down at the single one in her hands. 

“Um...How do I-?” She looked over at Michelangelo for guidance, catching him ripping open a similar looking packet with his hands. “...Oh.”

It made sense, she had noticed that humans in particular seemed to use these tiny appendages for a wide variety of tasks, especially when dealing with food. She tugged at the packet with a bit of a struggle, puffing out one of her cheeks - how did he do this so effortlessly? Then, a pop. The immediate aroma was familiar to her and she peeked inside. The bag was filled with potato chips, one of the frequent foods Mikey had fed her over the past weeks. Vye then realized she had no idea how she was meant to eat this, in her previous form all she had to do was force her face into the packet and demolish what was there, but that didn’t seem quite as practical now somehow.

At that moment Donatello walked in, holding an empty glass that he had come through to refill. Upon seeing their alien guest, he started to greet her, only to have his attention taken by his younger brother’s excessive munching. At this point Leonardo seemed unphased as he worked his way through his cereal, but paused as he noticed Vye looking over at Mikey again, watching him pour an entire bag of pretzels into his mouth.

Vye took in this display and looked over at the other two turtles, who slowly and silently shook their heads at her. Taking another moment, she looked back down into the packet and hesitantly put her hand in. It felt strange, the grease rubbed on her skin as she reached for a single chip and carefully took it out of the pack. As she hinted the chip close to her mouth she looked at Don and Leo again, who proceeded to give her mirroring nods of approval. Receiving this as acknowledgement that she was doing the task correctly, she put the chip in her mouth and began to chew. This method seemed less efficient, but there must have been something to it. 

Unknowing that his eating technique was being silently scrutinized, Mikey put down the remains of his final treat, a loud belch escaping him in the process. A stern voice from behind then startled him.

“Michelangelo.”

“Eep!” He turned to see the small rat standing behind him, giving a very questionable look. “Oh, hey Master Splinter!”

“You should be more aware of your manners when we have guests.”

Mikey sheepishly scratched the back of his head, laughing.

“Yeah, but- Better out than in, right?”

Master Splinter sighed, seeing that his words were not going to get through. Instead of pursuing further, he made his way towards the cupboards to prepare himself some tea. Vye watched curiously as he did this, continuing to cautiously nibble on the potato chips she brought to her mouth one by one.

“Training will begin soon, so I suggest you do not overeat.” Splinter added.

“It’s probably a little late for that, Sensei.” Donatello remarked as he pointed out the pile of empty wrappers flooding the table.

Their father sighed, looking as if he was about to say something until he was interrupted by a beckoning voice from beyond the kitchen.

“Helloooo? Anybody home? Guys?”

Recognizing the voice, the turtles all turned to look at the doorway, where April now stood. She was carrying a small plastic bag and had a rucksack held over one shoulder. Seeing she had found who she was looking for, she smiled and entered the room.

“Hey, April.” Don greeted.

“You’re early.” Leo continued, putting away his now empty bowl into the sink.

April carefully took the rucksack off her shoulder and rested it on the table. 

“Well I did say I was going to drop by with some more clothes. It’s not much, but it should do until we can take Vye up onto the surface to-” Her voice trailed off as she spotted the girl in question, who was watching her in the same curious manner as everyone else, still eating her potato snack. “Wait...That’s not her breakfast is it?”

“Sure it is! We weren’t gonna let her go hungry!” Mikey beamed.

April looked at Mikey in disbelief for a second, almost dropping the bag in her hands. She then placed her hand on her hips, leaning forward slightly to scold him.

“Mikey! You can’t just give her potato chips for every meal!” She started. “She’s in a human body now, she probably needs to have a more human diet. She’s not like you guys, it might make her sick.”

“Aww, what? But she likes them!”

“That’s not the point…”

Vye tilted her head as she watched the group discussion unfold. It seemed whatever she was eating now also wasn’t quite right. There really was a lot to learn with this new form, would she even be able to handle it all? The playful turtle was right though, she did like the potato chips, even if they did taste a little different to her than before. The change would probably adapt her tastes in many ways, which she had forgotten to consider. Did this mean there was a much wider variety of foods she had yet to experience? Something about that thought sparked an excitable curiosity in her. 

After April had finally convinced Michelangelo to be more stringent with the newly human guest’s diet, she took the rucksack again and held it over the back of her shoulder.

“Alright, so...Where am I putting this?”

The group all exchanged looks, except for Vye who obliviously continued to munch away at her food. The night before Vye had been left to sleep on the sofa, a common practice they’d shared with many of their guests, but after finding her curled up in a different bed the following morning it was beginning to cross their minds that perhaps that wasn’t a viable solution. 

“Anywhere but my room!” Michelangelo blurted out, sensing his family’s gaze settle on him.

April raised an eyebrow, realizing she’d hit a nerve. Vye was probably still adjusting to her new place in the lair as well as the group overall, and it sounded like she’d already been a bit intrusive in some way. Given that she herself had also stayed in Michelangelo’s room once before, it made sense to her that he had a bit of a sore spot in having to share it. 

Insistent in trying to keep the sanctity of his room, Mikey indulged the others on what had transpired that morning. April had hit the nail on the head, and she sighed as she folded her arms. Meanwhile, Donatello rubbed under his chin thoughtfully.

“It’s probably instinctual.” He mused. “As ‘Dash’, Vye relied heavily on her other senses, and probably acted on a lot of impulses. Sort of like Klunk.”

“So she’s...acting like a cat?” Leo asked.

“Well...I suppose so, theoretically. She probably didn’t realize she was doing it.”

Mikey gulped. “I-It’ll go away though, right?” 

April slowly tapped her cheek in thought as she absorbed the conversation before putting out her own idea. This matter seemed like it might be more delicate than they all originally thought. 

“Maybe a compromise would work.” She started. “How about if she just stays in the room? If Don’s right, then it’s probably partly a sensory thing. She’s in a human body now so her sense of smell and the like are probably a lot different from before, but it’ll be a lot easier switching from Mikey’s bed to the floor, for example.” Looking at Michelangelo’s agitated expression she placed her hands on her hips. “Give her time and she’ll probably get more comfortable sleeping elsewhere. For now though, it’s probably better if we don’t rattle her too much.”

“Aw what?! Come on, April!” Mikey whined. He was slowly losing the battle.

“Michelangelo.” Master Splinter interjected, placing his hand on Mikey’s arm. “We must offer those in need our hospitality when we can. It is the honourable thing to do.”

“He’s right, Mikey.” Said Leo.

Donatello nodded along with the others before adding another point.

“Besides, think about it. She must’ve _really_ wanted to get that familiar comfort.” He started, carrying on before Mikey could object. “She started off on the couch, but somewhere during the night she scrambled all the way up into your bedroom. I’d say climbing up and down that ladder is a pretty hefty task for someone adjusting to being bipedal after spending who knows how long as a quadruped.”

Unable to get a word in edgewise, Mikey merely grimaced as he was continuously pelted with counterpoints and arguments. His head sank a little as the reality of the situation washed over him. He’d lost. This solution made the most sense, and while he hated it, he didn’t want to push any further in fear of getting booted from the room altogether, especially if it led to him sharing a room with Raphael again. That was definitely something he wanted to avoid. 

“Ahhh fine, whatever! She can sleep in my room.” He blurted reluctantly as he began to leave the kitchen. “But _not_ my bed, okay?”

He turned and pointed at the young girl accusingly as he got to the doorway, looking unusually strict.

“Okay.” Vye nodded.

With the matter seemingly dealt with, April made her way to drop off the clothes like she had announced, while Leonardo began to help Master Splinter with making his awaited tea. Donatello turned to Vye just as he was about to leave the room.

“Don’t worry, we should have some spare padding somewhere. I’ll set it up in there for you.”

She wasn’t sure what he meant by padding, but she surmised he must have referred to the fact that Michelangelo probably wanted her to sleep on the floor, which would have been hard and uncomfortable. Merely nodding again to Donatello as he left, she dropped her now empty snack packet with the rest of the rubbish left behind and made her way to follow behind Mikey again as he marched his way towards the television area.

On her route she turned her head to look across the spread of the lair. Looking at everything at her new height gave her a new perspective, and though it was a little strange it was also intriguing how different it made the place seem. The size was a little less daunting now that she was bigger. As she looked around her gaze stopped as she caught glance of Raphael walking from his room towards the kitchen area. They both halted as their eyes met, Raph scowling and letting out a low growl as he clenched his fists. Vye flinched at this reaction, quickly looking away as soon as he stormed off towards his destination. Even though she was bigger now, there was something about that particular turtle that still intimidated her greatly.

“Hey Vye!”

Her nerves were practically punched away by the sound of Michelangelo’s voice beckoning her from the nearby sofa.

“Wanna watch tv?” He grinned as he patted the cushions, seeming to have already gotten over the fact she was hijacking his room. Unbeknownst to her, he had already begun to consider the fact that if she was bunking with him, it presented a massive opportunity for him to expose her to all sorts of Earth culture. Comic books, video games, movies; the important things.

Giving a slight smile in relief, Vye continued on her way over. In her previous form she had paid little attention to the cluster of moving picture screens in front of the sofa, so as she sat down she found herself quickly enthralled. It wasn’t like she’d never seen a television anywhere before - in fact they were quite a common technology throughout the galaxy - but she hadn’t had much opportunity to sit and enjoy the contents of it. Most of the time she would catch newscasts from other planets, but what Michelangelo appeared to be watching with something more recreational. 

***

Getting caught up in the superhero world in front of her eyes for at least ten minutes, Vye almost didn’t hear Donatello as he addressed her, having stopped on his way towards his work space.

“Say, Vye, I’ve been wanting to ask you something.”

It took a minute to register she was being spoken to, and once she did, she turned her head to look over at him. Mikey, however, remained with his eyes glued to the television.

“It’s nothing major, I was just curious.” Don continued. “It’s about your eyes.”

Vye blinked slowly.

“My...eyes?”

“Yeah, I noticed that when you mimicked April they didn’t become green like hers are. They became a different colour entirely.”

“Oh yeah!” Mikey blurted out suddenly as he turned around on the sofa. “I was wondering about that too! What’s the deal? And why are you so small?”

The alien girl felt a slight warmth in her cheeks once she realized what they were referring to, shifting her gaze to her knees and twiddling her thumbs. 

“O-Oh...That.” She muttered. “That’s...Well... I’m still young for my kind and, well, quite inexperienced...So sometimes I mess up my form a little. Especially if I’m interrupted or...distracted.”

“So it was just an error?” Don queried. “Does that happen with every form you take?”

“Um...Possibly. I’m not entirely sure, but...It happened with my last one.”

Mikey tilted his head slightly. “Y’mean Dash?”

“Yes. I got the coat markings wrong of the original species, and well...When one of the locals noticed…”

“...They handed you over to the Galactic Federation.” Donatello finished her sentence, looking up in thought. “I see, so that’s why you were in their lab.”

Vye closed her eyes as she nodded, her head remaining drooped in mild shame. She hated admitting that she’d been caught due to such an obvious mistake, worse being that it wasn’t even the first time it had happened. It had become difficult to keep count of just how often she’d been found out due to one of her form blunders. 

“In that case,” Don spoke up again. “Why don’t you try changing them?”

Vye looked up at him again, looking a bit perplexed. To clarify further, he continued.

“Well...Purple isn’t exactly a...common eye colour on earth. Certainly not for humans.”

“Oh…”

She hadn’t noticed this, Dash’s sight was rather different from how she saw things now so the colour of earth human eyes hadn’t occurred to her, and it probably wasn’t a good thing if part of her stood out that much. Self-consciously feeling around the area of her eyes with her fingertips, she began to ponder this for a moment. This didn’t last long as Michelangelo suddenly blurted out his own feelings on the matter.

“Aw come on, Don! But they look cooler this way!”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s ‘cool’, Mikey.” Don frowned. “Anything that makes her stand out isn’t exactly a good thing. What if she wants to go topside and blend in with other humans?”

“Hey, last time I checked we stand out a shell of a lot more than she does, and we do just fine.” He gestured to Vye with his thumb, catching her attention. “Also if you’re far away enough, they don’t look that bad!”

Donatello squinted at his brother before returning his attention back to Vye, who upon noticing the glance looked straight back in silence. Not peeling his eyes away he took a few steps from the couch, folding his arms as he began to ponder. Michelangelo had a point, as much as he hated to admit it. From a distance or a glance her eyes could probably pass for blue at best, and if she struggled as much as she claimed to get her forms right, there was probably a risk of making things worse if she tried to change it now. Conceding, he sighed and moved his hands to his hips.

“Well...I suppose if anyone asks, she could say she has contact lenses…”

“Contact…?” Vye started before getting interrupted by Mikey gripping her shoulders and shaking her from side to side.

“See! It’s fine!” Mikey grinned, grabbing the TV remote and pointing it towards the television screens. “She could pretend she’s a superhero! Or dressing up like one of the aliens in _Super Major Space Race 89_! Though you’d probably need a cloak for that...”

While he wanted to point out that none of those were exactly a better option, Donatello already felt a little exasperated and merely shrugged it off, given Mikey appeared to mostly be talking to himself at this point. It took a moment for Vye’s head to settle from the sudden rattling, and once it did she came to a realization; the mention of space had triggered a thought.

“Oh...I never got a chance to thank you.”

“Me?” Michelangelo pointed towards himself, lowering the remote in his other hand.

“Yes. Well...All of you.” She continued. “If you hadn’t gotten me out of that Galactic Federation lab when you did...I don’t know what they would have done to me in there…”

An anxious grimace washed over Vye’s face for a moment as she recalled the nerves she felt being stranded within her own containment cell. Catching the waver in her voice, Donatello snapped out of curiosity mode and smiled down at her.

“Well we’re just as indebted to you. If you hadn’t broken out when you did and caused all that distraction, we might not have even gotten out of our cells.”

“Yeah! It worked out for everyone!” Michelangelo added. “...Well, except those Collection Squad guys, heh.”

The comfort in their words reached Vye, causing her to smile just a little bit and forget about her previous anxiety. She began to fixate her gaze on her twiddling thumbs again, this time her face warmed with a bashful happiness, as she was reassured she had done something helpful.

The moment of self-satisfaction was short lived as the sudden blaring of sirens began to echo through the vast space of the lair, causing everyone to jump - Vye more so than the others as she hadn’t heard the sound before. It was the security system again. Before she could muster the words to ask what was happening, Donatello had already rushed over to his computers, frantically typing away as he tried to track down the source of the trigger. Mikey simultaneously got to his feet, but remained close to Vye as she cowered behind the couch cushions. Raph’s usual gruff bark then hollered from across the room as he walked out from the kitchen.

“Yo, Don, what gives?!”

“Just give me a sec. ” Don insisted as everyone began to gather into the central room while the warning sounds continued on.

He got to his feet abruptly, leaning on his desk.

“Uh...Guys?” His voice shook slightly as he pointed to his screen. “I think it’s the Galactic Federation...Again.”

Sharp exhales escaped the group, April taking a step forward.

“Wait, you mean the aliens that came and arrested you-?”

Leonardo frowned, walking to stand behind his brother at the computer.

“Donnie, are you sure?”

“Yeah, I mean...After last time I used some materials from the ship we hijacked to add to the biosensor database...And this signal is definitely from one of those cruisers.”

“But didn’t we totally lose those guys?!” Mikey wailed from where he stood.

“Yes, but they already knew how to get to our planet before we did that.” Don answered. “Not to mention they’ve already been in our home once…”

Donatello sighed as he parked himself back down in his chair. He had said this out loud just as he was realizing it himself. Even though he had removed what he thought were tracking perimeters from the ship, none of that would make a difference if their location was already known from the get-go. The siren carried on whooping, starting to grate on Raphael’s nerves and causing him to grit his teeth. 

“What are they doing here though?” April asked.

“Take a wild guess.” Raphael growled as he gestured with his thumb towards the small girl who sat skittishly on the sofa behind them.

Vye flinched as she felt everyone’s gaze fall upon her, gripping tightly onto the cushions she was hiding behind. Anxiety began to fill her eyes. Of course they would be looking for her. Despite everyone’s varying degree of stress, Leo remained calm and turned to their father for guidance.

“Master Splinter...What should we do?”

“Hm…” Splinter mulled. “First...I ask that you turn off that alarm, Donatello.”

Hearing his name mentioned, Don snapped out of his brief sulk and immediately did as he was told. The lair was met with silence once again, and while a relief to everyone’s ears, it didn’t ease much of the tension.

“Secondly,” Splinter continued. “We should wait patiently for our guests.”

***

It took a couple of minutes to shift the group into a unanimous decision, mainly due to Raphael’s objections in the matter. They all stood around anxiously in wait, except for their alien guest who had been ushered off into the closest room by Leonardo, and merely sat on the ground just to the side of the doorway so that she could listen in. The Collection Squad arrived as abruptly as expected, though appeared to be much more peaceful in their approach, which threw everyone off guard. There were no signs of disruption on the surface level, and the main crew were accompanied by less security personnel than the last time. A familiar cloaked alien with cat-like eyes stepped out from the small group, holding a clipboard to their chest, and the other hand holding an equally familiar device. On seeing the figure, Raphael tutted as he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

“You guys ever heard of callin’ first?”

His comment was met by a gentle shove from Donatello, who stood next to him. The alien leered over at Raphael before returning their attention to the entire room.

“Good day, residents.” They began. “I understand this may be an...unforeseen event for you all, considering you ‘escaped’ our capture the last time we met.”

Everyone became wary, their expressions showing minor worry, except for Raphael who continued to scowl. The alien ignored this and continued.

“However it is with great contrition that we come to you this day to let you know, in person, that you have all been...pardoned.”

The group’s jaws suddenly became laxed. Did they hear him correctly? Leonardo stepped out from his place to question the alien.

“What do you mean ‘pardoned’?”

“Well, after extended investigation it turns out that there was a….hm.” They hesitated. “An error on our part, when we set out your arrest. You see…”

The tall figure stepped aside as they gestured for a shorter, more youthful alien awkwardly came forward to stand level with them, their head hung low.

“One of our interns that was in charge of organizing the databases for the planets we were searching managed to slip up on some vital information.” The taller alien carried on, looking down at the younger counterpart with mild disappointment. “Which means our database of ‘registered creatures’ was….incomplete.”

Donatello’s eyes widened slightly as he brought his fist down into his palm. That’s right. Last time they were arrested because of Klunk, and they had acted like they’d never seen anything like him before.

“I thought it was strange that you guys didn’t know what a cat was.” He blurted out without thinking, receiving some minor glances from the others.

The alien took no offense to this however, and merely looked at Don for a moment before looking back at his subordinate with disapproval.

“Hm...Yes.”

They were clearly experiencing mild embarrassment from the situation, unable to state anything further as they nudged the intern forward.

“We bring you our most humble apologies.”

“I-I’m so terribly sorry!”

The pair bowed to the group, the intern doing so more deeply and frantically than their older staff member. Everyone exchanged awkward glances, totally taken aback by the turn in events. Given how the last time went, this definitely wasn’t how they expected the encounter to go. They all felt a bit of relief in having listened to Master Splinter’s guidance this time around, who was watching the scene unfold quietly. Unsure of what to say, Leo said the only thing he could think of.

“Uh, We...We accept your apology.”

The relief they all felt was challenged as the aliens straightened up again, the experienced creature continuing to speak.

“The Galactic Federation thanks you. As compensation, neither the Federation or Collection Division will approach your household or this planet again for a minimum of 6 Earth months unless in a state of emergency.” He shifted his gaze to look at Donatello, whose shoulders flinched slightly at the sudden focus on him. “As a gesture of good will you have also been permitted to keep the Collection Cruiser that you... _borrowed_.”

All Donatello could do was chuckle nervously, scratching his cheek. The next words spoken by the alien caused the group to tense up once again.

“However, as a matter of galactic safety and protocol, it is imperative that I query the whereabouts of the creature that you took with you.”

“Klunk?” Mikey asked, worry in his voice.

“No...The other one.”

From behind the nearby doorway, the words struck Vye like a needle, her arms wrapping around her tucked knees as her anxiety began to flare.

“We know that particular being is not from this solar system, and I’m afraid it’s essential that we take it back to the Galactic Federation Laboratories for safe keeping.”

Michelangelo’s worry quickly became irritation as he frowned at the sentence just spoken.

“ _Safe keeping_ _?_ That place is far from safe keeping! You were hurting he- uh- it!”

“Michelangelo.” Splinter cooed, walking over to his son to prevent him stepping further forward. “I apologise for my son, however I am afraid the creature you seek is no longer here.”

The alien raised what would have been an eyebrow, their suspicion growing evident on their face.

“Unfortunately I can’t just take your word on that. We have a warrant for a required sweep of the area…”

Vye tightened her grasp around her legs, closing her eyes tight. As Splinter began to try and ward off the alien’s suspicions, she reopened them. If she was found out, they would all get arrested again - or potentially worse. There had to be something they could do to get the squad to leave...Something…

It was then she noticed the large dark blanket bundled just a few meters away from where she sat. Her fingers dug into her clothes for a moment as she gathered her courage, and then carefully stumbled to her feet, scooping up the material.

“It’s gone.”

The new voice echoed through the room, bringing everyone’s attention to look over at the source. The turtles all looked amongst themselves, fighting the instantaneous urges to tell the girl to go back into hiding. Vye swallowed hard before making her way over to the cloaked alien, presenting the dark blanket in her arms.

“The creature...You won’t find it here because it...it passed away. It couldn’t survive in the atmosphere.”

The alien’s cat-eyes squinted at the small girl.

“...And who are you?”

Vye opened her mouth to speak but no words came out, thankfully April swiftly came forward and placed her hands on her shoulders to help stop them from trembling.

“She’s- ...She’s my daughter, sir.” She began. “I wasn’t sure what you would do to us, so I told her to hide.”

“Ah...Of course. You’re a local.” His gaze moved back to the young girl, his stare becoming intense.

With no further words, the alien finally lifted his small scanning device, allowing the beams to run down April’s body before checking the various data on it’s small screen. Appeased with the confirmation she was human, he then moved on to do the same with Vye. Although the process took the same amount of time, it felt more than twice as long as everyone found themselves holding their breath, the scanning laser moving slowly down and down the small alien’s body, until…

“...Hmph. I see.”

The scanner then went across the blanket held in Vye’s arms, detecting the various hairs left behind from the previous day. The alien let out a frustrated sigh as he examined his findings.

“Most disappointing...Though, it’s probably for the best.” He dropped his arm to rest by his side once more, looking across the group. “Then we have no further business.”

He took one final bow, pressing on the apologetic intern’s head to force them back into the same position.

“We thank you for your cooperation.”

Almost as quickly as they’d arrived, the squad made their way quietly out of the lair, leaving the entire group in silence.

It wasn’t until Vye’s knees buckled, causing her to slide down onto the floor, that everyone snapped back to attention. Michelangelo rushed over to help April in pulling her back to her feet, grinning slightly.

“Not bad, you guys!”

Leonardo rubbed the back of his head, continuing to look off in the direction that the collection squad had left in.

“That was...really unexpected. More than that, I can’t believe that actually worked.”

“They...They believed me, right…?” Vye stuttered, looking down at her hands as the blanket was taken from her by April. 

“It seems so.” April smiled. “Their scanners didn’t pick up on you either.”

Donatello tapped his chin thoughtfully. “They don’t really seem to know what they’re looking for, do they…?”

“I said it before, those goons have their heads filled with space dust.” Raphael grumbled, his voice getting closer to the group.

Vye nervously looked up at Raphael, who remained crossing his arms and glaring down at her. She braced herself for the inevitable yelling, only to be met with a mere grunt. The idiot could have easily just turned herself in and saved them a world of trouble... then again that would have probably resulted in yet another unwanted trip into space for all of them for ‘harbouring a figurative’ or something along those lines. He hated to admit it, but it probably was the right thing to have done in the moment.

“I guess you’re not terrible.” He paused. “Not at lyin’ though, your lyin’ stinks. You’re lucky those guys are dumb as rocks.”

Slightly dumbfounded, all Vye could do in response was blink. Was this his way of being nice? It was very hard to tell. She already struggled with earth social cues as it was, but reading Raphael was a whole other battle in itself. Master Splinter tapped his cane gently against his son’s foot before setting it back down on the ground.

“As I always say...Patience is a virtue.” 

“You were right Master Splinter.” Leo smiled lightly.

“Yes, and now we may rest easy.”

Michelangelo punched the air with his free fist as he and April aided Vye in sitting back down on the nearby couch.

“Sweet! No more Galactic Police!”

His excitement was quickly deflated by Master Splinter pointing the slim cane in his direction.

“Except for you, Michelangelo.” He began, sternly. “You are very much behind in your training, which incidentally begins in 5 minutes.”

“Awww…! But Sensei!” 

As Mikey moaned and groaned trying to reason his way out of an early morning training session, Donatello approached the now rattled alien girl sat on the edge of the couch. The incident had clearly put her on edge, and the potential of being caught out in such close quarters had most likely shaken her nerves - the behaviour almost put him in mind of the way she was back when she was ‘Dash’. Vye’s gaze remained fixed on her hands, and though he spoke gently she still jumped at the sudden interaction, jolted out of her daze.

“Hey, maybe we should give you an official tour of the lair.” He suggested. “It’s probably a little confusing at the moment, right?”

After digesting his words Vye nodded slowly. It was true, though she had been living there a short while already, everything looked different than it used to and her sense of direction had also changed significantly. Not to mention a lot of the time in her previous form she spent being carried around by other people, so finding her own way around was a bit of a challenge at times. One thing she’d noticed in particular was that her sense of smell wasn’t as good any more, and that was going to be a detriment in the matter. Sensing that he had piqued her interest, Donatello smiled and placed his hands on his hips.

“Alright, then we’ll start with the central space.”

“Woah, hold on a minute!” Michelangelo boomed, causing all eyes to fall on him. “I have to do 100 high flying kicks, but Don gets to do a tour?! How is that fair?!”

“Because your brother isn’t lacking in discipline.” Master Splinter scolded, tapping his cane on his whining son’s head. 

“Ow!” Mikey groaned. “But why can’t April do it?”

“Miss O’Neil has more pressing matters I’m sure.”

April scratched the back of her head, her other hand on her hip.

“Sorry Mikey, I would but I’m already late for opening up the shop.” She raised her hand in apology. “Maybe next time.”

With the exchange of some waves and nods, April parted ways with the group, quickening her pace the closer she got to the exit. The unprecedented alien encounter had already made her late, and it wasn’t an ordeal that was exactly easy to explain to customers. Michelangelo watched her leave with an almost longing expression, his dreams of getting out of training becoming shattered the moment the door closed behind her. He let out a long arduous groan as his shoulders slumped forward, finally accepting defeat. Leonardo patted his shoulder, attempting to perk him up.

“Come on, Mikey. We’ll help you with your form.”

This was followed by Raphael giving a light punch on his other side.

“Yeah, you could use it.”

The two older brothers began to lead him off towards their usual training spot, Splinter watching carefully for a moment before turning to his remaining son, who had tapped on his shoulder lightly to get his attention.

“I’ll make it for half-time, Sensei.”

“Of course. However, make sure Miss Vye gets a good run of the lair. We do not want her getting lost in the sewers.”

“Sure.”

Master Splinter had raised a valid concern, to which Donatello suddenly felt a minor hint of pressure. His main objective at the start was merely to distract Vye from the sudden inspection, but obviously it would be far more important to ensure that in future she didn’t wander off and give away their location in the process - not to mention what could happen if she accidentally ended up top-side or even roaming into the much more dangerous lower levels. He shook this feeling off rather quickly as he received an affirming nod from Master Splinter, giving a small bow of his head in return. As the rest of his family made their way onward towards their planned activity, he shifted to face the puzzled red-head still sitting on the sofa.

“Shall we?”

***

It didn’t take long for Donatello to take the Cytolerus on a loop of the lair, although it was hard to tell if she was retaining any of the information he was putting across. For the majority of the time she merely stared and nodded, her eyes occasionally widening when something of interest caught her gaze, but not much other than that. Maybe their home wasn’t that interesting to an alien who had seemingly been all over space? As they reached the final spot by his work space, he turned to face her again.

“...And this is the lab. You can have a look around if you want, but- uh...Please don’t touch anything.”

His comment almost went unnoticed as Vye stared absentmindedly at the desk spaced to the side. She remembered that desk. It was the one she’d been examined on multiple times in her previous form. The memories gave her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, it almost felt like a different life now, even though the last time she would have been checked was probably less than a week ago. It felt even more strange to be looking down at it, instead of looking up from it. 

“Are you okay?”

The second comment from Donatello snapped her out of her thought process, her head jolting to look over at him.

“Oh...Yes.”

“Well, that’s pretty much it.” Don placed one hand on his hip. “You’ll get used to the place soon enough.”

Vye nodded at him slowly, seeming to stare. Feeling a slight unease, he leaned forward to wave his hand carefully across her line of sight. 

“...Books…”

The sudden words surprised him and he leaned back again as he realized she was in fact staring right past him. Turning around to follow her gaze he noticed the large shelving unit she had been eyeing up.

“Oh, yeah. Do you like reading?” He asked.

It took her a moment to think of an answer. _Did she like reading books?_ She wasn’t sure. When was the last time she’d actually seen one? She knew they held all sorts of written words for a wide array of uses, but it had been a long time since she’d acquainted herself with such items.

“...I don’t really know.” Was all she could reply.

“Hm…” Donatello rubbed under his chin for a moment, thinking to himself. “Well, it might not be a bad idea for you to try some.” 

He walked over to the bookshelf in question and scanned the contents with his finger. A lot of the content there was highly advanced, probably not the best thing for an inexperienced extra-terrestrial starting out as a human. Finally his trace came to a stop and he pulled out one of the slimmer books, covered in a very light layer of dust as it clearly hadn’t been picked up in a while. Vye looked down in bemusement at the small paperback handed across to her. There was a picture of a human skeleton on the cover, though not knowing what that was she wasn’t able to perceive the image herself as she cautiously took the book from Don’s grasp.

“It’s just a basic level biology book, but it might be worth looking at so you can understand your new form a little better.” He paused as he noticed her gaze shooting right past him once again, examining the rows of books laid across the shelves. “...But you can read whatever you want...I guess?”

Vye slowly shook her head as she looked back at him.

“No, I’ll be fine with this.”

Donatello smiled a bit as he turned to make his way out of the workshop, raising his hand to her.

“Well, help yourself.” His open hand changed into a point as he realized something. “Although, just...don’t eat anything when you read them, okay? No matter what Mikey says, greasy fingers do _not_ help you turn pages easier.”

There was a slight hint of disapproval in his tone as he recalled one moment in particular where one of his first editions of _Mechanics & Theory _ was horrifyingly besmirched in cheese-dust fingerprints. Not fully understanding what his warning had to do with reading, Vye tilted her head slightly before nodding. She then followed him out of the workshop and made her own way towards the entertainment area, while Donatello himself made a beeline to join the rest of his family with their training session.

Now having a moment to herself, she opened up the small book on her lap and skimmed some of the written lines. She seemed to be able to read them perfectly fine, that was good. After putting in a bit more focus, her eyes began to squint and she wrinkled her nose as she tried to absorb the information. _This was meant to be basic?_ Humans were clearly more complicated than she thought. The sudden sound of clattering broke her concentration and she turned her head to peer over the back of the sofa she had made herself comfortable on. It was only the turtles, appearing to be clashing their weapons against each other. She’d vaguely noticed them doing this activity before but as she would usually be sleeping, she hadn’t had a good look. What was the purpose of it? It looked like they were trying to hurt one another, yet it was all an organized affair that they seemed to be inclined to. With a shake of her head she decided not to question it and merely watched for another minute before returning her attention to the book in her hands, trying once again to dive her mind into the knowledge laid out in front of her and allowing the echoing sounds of Master Splinter and his sons’ sparring to gradually become part of the new ambience.

  
  


***

The young dark haired boy hesitated as he stood in the doorway, his hand tightly grasping onto his phone. In ordinary circumstances he would have no problems stepping foot over the threshold between him and the man mere metres away, but when it came to bearing bad news all that confidence crumbled away. He had been trying so hard to make a good impression after all. As he gulped to try and swallow his fear, he was addressed with a raspy voice that caused the gesture to get stuck in his throat for a moment.

“I assume this is about your weekly report.” Agent Bishop hissed.

The catch in his throat caused the boy to cough instead of speak, clearing his throat briefly before attempting again.

“Y-Yes, sir.” His voice remained slightly scratched, easing off the more he spoke. “I’ve been constantly investigating the alleyways, checking news articles as well as online postings...I-I even tried going into the subway like you suggested but there have been no signs or mention of the creature anywhere.”

As Bishop refused to turn away from his own monitor, the boy looked down at the phone in his hand. He had finally found something...something that could put him up the ladder, put him in favour with the revered Agent John Bishop, and yet nothing to show for it.

“I...I definitely saw it, sir.”

“Oh I’m not doubting that.” Bishop smirked a little as he turned to face the boy, his arms crossed behind his back. “Young man, I have seen more on this earth than you could possibly imagine.”

Being a member of the Earth Protection Force had given the Agent a lot of insight into the wider scope of life in the universe. He had made this very clear in the induction period of the boy’s internship, which only fed his fascination and determination to do a good job under his wing. Agent Bishop sauntered towards the boy, looking down the rim of his glasses at him.

“It’s out there somewhere, believe me.” He turned around, adjusting his tie with one hand. “Nothing hides from Agent John Bishop, or the U.S. Government.”

“You really think it’s still out there?” The boy stuttered. “Have you heard something-?”

Bishop’s grin returned as he walked over to one of the other large monitors in the room, looking over his shoulder at the boy for a moment before attending to the keyboard on the desk in front of him.

“In a manner of speaking.” He began. “Have you heard of the _Federation of Universal Protection against Deadly Extra-Terrestrials_?”

As he looked at the display on the screen, the boy went slack-jawed, almost unable to even think on the ridiculously long name presented to him. What looked to be a Wanted notice was shown, though all the text was in a language he could not recognise. It definitely wasn’t a human language. 

“No...sir.” He barely croaked. 

“It seems they are looking for a particular species, one that could pose a threat to all life in the universe as we know it.” Bishop continued. “They wish to capture and exterminate them at all costs.”

“Is there really something that dangerous out there?”

“Not out there, son.” Bishop turned to face the boy once more, his expression turning more grim. “I believe it’s here, on this planet.”

The boy almost dropped his phone at the sudden turn, fumbling to grip it tightly and looking up at his mentor nervously. The deadly alien was here? On Earth?

“H-How can you be so sure?”

The flapping of Bishop’s sleeve was heard as he enthusiastically threw his arm out towards the monitor, gesturing at particular markings.

“Do you recall when you showed me that original photo? Well...This state-of-emergency message was broadcast across the galaxy mere weeks before your sighting.” His lips curved into a grin. “An awfully big coincidence in my book.”

The young boy regained control of his jaw and brought his hand up to cup his chin as he listened. It was quite a coincidence...but how could they be sure this was the same creature? Unable to read the contents of the space message himself, the boy had no choice but to take the Agent’s word for it. If he saw reason to be concerned, there was probably a good chance he was right. The hand on his chin shifted back to his side as his confidence began to return, his gaze looking more bold than before.

“So what do we do?”

“We keep looking. I’ll be working on correspondence with the Galactic Federation to see what information I can get on their side.” Agent Bishop turned partially towards the screen again. “Perhaps I can strike a deal with them. You keep up with your weekly reports, but check sightings outside of the city too. We can’t have this spreading.”

“Yes, sir!” The boy nodded.

A mild excitement began to build within his stomach. What he feared had become a dead end seemed to have become something much, much bigger. A small hopeful smile crept onto the boy’s face as he stared up at the screen above, eager to move on to the next step.


	7. First Outing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With her being cooped up in the lair for several weeks, the Turtles decide it’s time to introduce Vye to the surface. However, things may not go as smoothly as they planned.

It had been several weeks since Vye had settled into her new human form, entering new territory for the small ninja family, as well as herself. Though she continued to remain quiet most of the time, it was evident that she was gradually becoming more vocal and gaining a bit of understanding in social situations. None of this was without the occasional blunder, however. She spent most of her time familiarizing herself with earth culture through any means available to her within the confines of the lair, though this often became muddied by Michelangelo’s constant barrage of comics, movies, and video games that definitely tugged the line between fiction and fact. Despite the stumbles here and there, overall she’d become more comfortable in her body and surroundings.

On one particular evening, Casey decided to pay a visit to the group, and had set himself up in the central area with his hockey stick at the ready. He pulled his mask down over his face and with the hockey stick poised, tapped gently at a small golf ball placed just in front of his feet. After feeling the position and aim was just right, he pulled the stick back as he hollered.

“FORE!”

His voice rang through the open space as his swing came down with brute force and whacked the golf ball clean from its resting spot, sending it swiftly into the air. It remained there for about 2 seconds before it was immediately kicked by a leaping Raphael, causing it to bounce harshly against one of the nearby training targets. The turtle landed perched on all fours to lighten the impact before getting to his feet with a proud smirk on his face, soon to be wiped off by Michelangelo’s commentary belting from a mere couple of metres away.

“Aaaand Raphael makes a clean shot with twenty points!”

“Twenty?! Are you kiddin’ me? That totally hit the center, that’s a full fifty!”

“Nu-uh, it hit the outside ring! It’s twenty!”

Casey lifted his mask momentarily as the two brothers bickered about the score, resting his hockey stick against his shoulder as he shifted to pick up another golf ball from his bag.

“See, this is why we should be usin’ darts, you guys.” He said, placing the newly acquired ball down in front of him.

“But where’s the fun in that? This way’s much more challenging!” Mikey retorted.

“I dunno, tryin’ not to get stabbed in the foot sounds pretty challengin’ to me.” 

Raphael folded his arms and grunted, glaring over at Mikey after Casey’s comment.

“Well I’m certainly open to that possibility right now.” He grumbled, causing Mikey to hold his hands up in defense.

“And this is exactly why we’re _not_ using darts!”

Across the room in the entertainment corner, Master Splinter sat on the sofa tending to a cup of tea placed in front of himself as he awaited the beginning of his regular soap opera. On the other end of the couch - now dressed in some of the newly gifted, more fitting clothes from April - sat Vye, who was engrossed in yet another book taken from one of the shelves in the lab. She wasn’t sure exactly when or why she was going to need to use information on combustion engines from the book she was reading but the workings of earth technology along with everything else had begun to fascinate her. Even though she struggled to understand a lot of it, the overall presentation was intriguing and made her curious.

The pair had already tuned out the noise from behind them, which resulted in little reaction to Casey’s following call as he swung for another golf ball. This time however, the tranquility was broken instantly with a smash, causing both figures on the sofa to flinch, with a small squeak escaping Vye. Their gazes following the origin of the sudden sound led them to see a small cracked indent in one of the now flickering lights overhanging the televisions, sparks spitting out as the culprit golf ball slipped out of the dent and onto the floor. Donatello, who had been preoccupied at his computer the entire time, also leaned back in his chair to look up at the scene behind him.

“Oh come on, guys!” He sighed. “I just fixed that.”

“Sorry!” Casey’s voice echoed from across the room.

“You can blame Mikey for that one, it was his turn to score.”

“Hey! I would’ve totally hit that if Casey’s aim wasn’t off!”

“ _My_ aim?! _You’re_ supposed t’be the ninja here!”

As the trio’s argument began to unfold once again, Donatello got up from his desk to walk over to the scene of the incident, carefully picking up the golf ball that had been smacked into his latest repair job. Considering that most people traversing the lair didn’t wear shoes it was probably wise to clean up the mess as soon as possible. While he made a start on shifting the small pieces of glass from the floor, he heard Master Splinter let out a light exasperated sigh before taking a long sip of his tea and turning up the volume of the television a couple of notches, the girl beside him having already returned her attention to her book. The next sound he heard was a pair of feet lightly hitting the floor a short distance away, followed by Leonardo’s voice.

“...What happened?”

“Just ask _The Three Stoodges_ over there.” Don answered, continuing to pick shards up off the ground.

Following the bickering from the aforementioned triad, Leo walked forward a few paces to make sure he could be heard over the noise when he spoke.

“You three really need to be more careful. You could take someone’s eye out with those things.” He gestured towards his own eye as he lectured.

“Why d’you think I’m wearin’ a mask?” Casey called out whilst holding his hockey stick back for another swing.

“You know that’s not what I mea-”

His sentence was rudely interrupted by another yell from Casey, whose arms pulled the hockey stick around once more to impact the next golf ball.

“GOONGALA!”

Leo made a swipe for the ball as it shot clear over Raph’s reach and made its way towards the back of Master Splinter’s head. About to call out to warn his father, he stopped as he noticed the golf ball had already been halted in its tracks, Splinter having caught it in his hand without even looking away from the tv.

“Woah, nice catch, Sensei!” Mikey exclaimed, impressed at the feat.

Casey scratched the back of his head, about to bumble an apology before Master Splinter turned around on the sofa to look at them all.

“Perhaps it would be wise to take a break.” He said. “ _Outside._ ”

There was a slight hint of irritation in his voice, which was to be expected as he was almost buffeted whilst trying to watch a simple soap opera. Sensing this, the boys all shuffled their feet a bit, Raphael and Casey looking particularly guilty. Feeling much less guilty, Michelangelo sprung to his feet, grinning.

“Y’know what that means, boys! I win with _eighty points_ \- time to celebrate!”

His celebration was met with a slap upside the back of his head from his hot tempered brother, who growled at having to admit defeat despite being certain the scores had been forged. 

“Alright, alright.” Casey conceded as he lifted his mask to show his face. “Who’s up for an ice-cream run?”

“Sounds good to me. Maybe I can throw one in Mikey’s face.” Raph taunted.

All Mikey did in response was blow a raspberry in his direction, placing his hands on his hips. Leonardo - and Donatello once he had finished cleaning up the previous mess - grouped up with the three to show their inclusion in the new plan. It was then that Mikey turned to face the sofa, shifting his weight to the side.

“Hey! Why don’t we take Vye?”

Hearing her name mentioned, the girl in question looked up from her book and over her shoulder to glance up at the boys.

“Me-?”

“Yeah! I mean, she’s never even had ice cream before!” He shook his head in pity, turning to the group again.

“That’s because you’ve been eating it all, you dope.” Raph added, giving him another - but much more gentle - slap to the head.

Leo tapped his chin in thought before resting his finger against his cheek, looking down at the girl.

“She has been cooped up in here for a while now…” He mulled. “Maybe it is about time we took her to the surface. What do you think, Donnie?”

Donatello had also been pondering to himself, almost mirroring his brother.

“Well...I suppose if we’re mainly going to be in the Battle Shell, it’s probably fine. If she wants to anyway.”

“Of course she does!” Mikey beamed.

The group looked at Vye expectantly, causing her to recoil slightly from the sudden attention. She hadn’t even thought about going to the surface yet and suddenly being bombarded with the opportunity felt really overwhelming, especially with Michelangelo giving his usual over-eager stare. She had to admit though, she was curious about the world above, and this ‘iced cream’ they had been talking about. It was probably as good a time as any now that the invitation was actually out there. Closing the book on her lap, she nodded nervously.

“Okay, I’ll go.”

Mikey grabbed her wrist to pull her to her feet, causing the book to drop off her lap onto the floor. 

“Alright!” He dramatically announced, pointing with his free hand. “Onward to the Battle Shell - and victory dessert!”

Not giving Vye any time to react, Mikey marched on towards the elevator, dragging her behind him as the rest of the group began to follow. About to step away, Leo was stopped by Master Splinter addressing him.

“Leonardo, if you are to take Miss Vye with you, be sure not to let your brothers get into any mischief.” He paused. “Also…”

“Double-thick ice cream shake?” His son smiled, giving a thumbs up. “Way ahead of you, Master Splinter.”

The rat nodded in acknowledgement and watched the turtle run off to join Casey and the others. Once the door to the elevator closed he let out a small sigh of relief as he turned back to face the television, lifting the remote to adjust the volume once more as he had finally received the peace he needed to continue his long awaited daytime drama.

  
  


The musty smell of the abandoned warehouse filled Vye’s nostrils, causing her to wrinkle her nose. It was the only notable observation she could take on where she was given that Michelangelo had decided to cover her eyes once they got to their destination in the elevator, and as the warehouse was on street level she hadn’t been allowed to venture up to it until now. Slowly moving her forward, Mikey continued to shield her vision, raising his voice until it bounced off the walls.

“Introducing the coolest, flyest, most shell-tastic vehicle in the city of New Yo- no, wait- THE WORLD- Drumroll please-” 

Though met with silence from the others who began to shake their heads, he continued on, removing his hands from the girl’s eyes to go stand in front of the large green vehicle situated before them. 

“THE BATTLE SHELL!”

After her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting so she could actually make out what was being presented to her, Vye blinked slowly with no other visible reaction on her face.

“Oh. It’s a truck.”

Mikey’s arms drooped, his body slumping slightly at the drastic lack in enthusiasm he was originally hoping for. 

“Wha- I mean sure it _looks_ like a truck, but isn’t it cool?!”

“Well, with the way you were describing it all the way up here I was just sort of expecting, I don’t know...something else...like a spaceship? Or one of those...What are they called…” She paused, looking at her hands as if they would somehow give her the answer before looking back up at the turtle. “...Oh, a tank. That’s it, I was picturing a tank.”

Mikey gasped, looking offended as he threw his arms across the side of the truck. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Donatello.

“Well, it holds up like one at least.” Don added before tugging on his brother’s headband. “Now quit messing around and get inside, motormouth.”

“Owwww!” Mikey moaned. “Hey, I was trying to make your work look good!”

“I like to think my work speaks for itself.” Don continued as he hopped into the back of the truck and aided Leonardo in pulling the smaller alien girl in to join them.

Once inside, Vye did a brief 360 turn as she observed the interior of the vehicle. Despite how it looked on the outside, she was rather surprised by how much more advanced it appeared to be. She’d seen snippets of trucks and other large vehicles in books and tv shows, but this looked more like something out of one of Michelangelo’s comics. Noticing her behaviour, Mikey put his hands on his hips once he jumped in, a grin on his face.

“See? It _is_ cool!”

“Give it a rest, Mikey.” Raphael said, followed by an extended pause. “But yeah, it is cool.”

Vye nodded in agreement as she shuffled to allow the rest of the group to enter, Casey having to stoop under the entrance slightly due to his height. It was starting to feel a little crowded until Donatello made his way up to the front, sitting himself in the driver’s seat. After pressing a few of the many many buttons that seemed to be laid across the dashboard, he turned in his seat a bit to look back towards Vye and patted the passenger seat next to him. Taking a moment to register the gesture, she tilted her head slightly before making her way over towards the seat, taking up the invitation.

“Aw, what? I was gonna ride shotgun!” Mikey whined.

Donatello turned his head to look at him.

“Vye hasn’t properly seen the outside world yet, it makes the most sense to let her look out the window.” He explained. “Wasn’t that kind of the point of bringing her?”

Letting out no more than a grumble, his brother dropped down onto one of the back seats, folding his arms and puffing out his cheek, clearly unhappy that he had managed to thwart himself. Paying little mind to the pouting, Don turned back around and returned his focus to the wheel.

“You’ll maybe want to let him sit there on the way back.” He mentioned in a hushed voice, Vye turning her head to look at him as he did so. “Or you might never hear the end of it.”

Vye shifted her gaze up to the ceiling as she pondered. Having been Michelangelo’s roommate for the past few weeks, she could certainly see a possibility of that happening. As long as she got to see some part of the surface, it didn’t really bother her having to give up her seat at any point so she nodded in silence again. Once the group had begun to settle, the engine revved up, causing Vye to flinch at the sudden noise and lean far back into her seat as she gripped onto the cushion. The sound was a lot louder in real life than it seemed on the tv, even though it made sense for such a large contraption. Soon they found themselves on the move, the Battle Shell easing out of the driveway and out into the open roads of the city.

  
  


Most of the journey had been fairly quiet, excluding the occasional quibble between Michelangelo and Raphael with the former teasing over his latest conquest. Although Donatello’s driving had improved significantly, this was less evident to Vye whose stomach had begun to turn knots and soon found herself sunk low into her chair, unable to see past the dashboard. Human stomachs were surprisingly sensitive. Occasionally her gaze would watch the pitch black sky from where she was positioned, but it wasn’t until lights suddenly began to create an ambient glow that she shifted herself to sit upright. Her eyes widened slightly as she watched the tall illuminated buildings go past, eventually her curiosity overpowering her initial fear and allowing her to press her hands and nose up against the doorside window. They were blurry - along with the many other vehicles surrounding their own - but she caught glimpses of humans walking along the narrow street paths, each wearing their own distinctive clothing and moving in different directions at different paces. 

“So many…” She uttered to herself.

“That’s New York for ‘ya.” Casey chuckled, having heard her from where he stood.

It wasn’t long after that they arrived at their destination, the Battle Shell tucked away in one of the wider darkened alleys around the corner from the ice cream place so as not to be seen by the general public. Thankfully such a place was much less populated at night time. The turtles loitered around the alley to stretch their legs while Casey went to go buy the awaited desserts, Vye remaining in the safety of her front seat inside the van and continuing to curiously peek out of the windows. It had unfortunately become too cloudy to look at the sky properly and the tall walls of the buildings gave very little view of much else, still she found every new sight and sound intriguing. So much so that she barely noticed any of the conversation going on outside the back of the truck.

“Alright, Raph. I’ll give you one more opportunity to win this one!” Mikey grinned. “Whoever gets to the top of that fire escape first gets an extra fifty points! That would put you in the lead.”

“Casey already went to get your ‘winning order’ though, so what do _I_ get? Y’know, aside from the joy of actually beatin’ you.” Raphael paused, his glare relaxing for a moment before moving into a grin as he cracked his knuckles. “Wait, what am I saying? That’s _all_ I need, bring it on!”

His brother chuckled as he made a stance ready to make a leap for the nearest fire escape, only to be held in his position by Leonardo walking in between them with his hands on his hips. 

“Come on you two, that’s enough for one day.” 

The competing duo groaned a little in mild disappointment, Michelangelo standing upright once more and Raph folding his arms. Leo took a few steps further before turning to the both of them again.

“...Besides, we all know I’d beat you both.” He continued.

“Hey, no way, this is our wager!” Raph snapped, not keen on the idea of getting another opponent to potentially be shown up by. “And what makes you so confident, huh?”

Without further comment, Leonardo flipped himself backwards towards the fire escape, gripping on to it tightly and swiftly shifting his weight to push himself into further extra leaps up the railings until in no time at all he reached the very top, perching on the side to look down at his brothers with a mild smirk. Donatello, who had been quietly watching from the rear bumper of the truck, slowly clapped his hands.

“Impressive.”

Raphael growled quietly as he put his hands on his hips, looking much less amused.

“Show off.”

Thankfully before the competition could go any further, Casey reappeared in the alley attempting to carry multiple small bowls of ice cream by himself, a signal for Leo to quietly jump back down to ground level.

“Okay, who ordered the caramel chocolate swirl with whipped cream and sprinkles and almonds and- geez, how many toppings is this?” Casey called out.

“Enough toppings for a winner! That’s mine!” Mikey hopped over to grab his requested treat, holding it in the air like a trophy for a moment before lowering it to immediately start demolishing it with his spoon. 

Raph shook his head in disgust as he watched the display before taking his own bowl as it was handed to him, and soon everyone appeared to be served and digging into the frozen food. All except one small alien, who on overhearing the mention of ‘chocolate’ and ‘cream’ - two words she was definitely familiar with - had shifted herself to the back doorway of the van, quietly watching the group as she sat resting on her knees. It took a moment, but on taking one more spoonful into his mouth, Leo noticed this, swallowing before he spoke.

“Uh, Casey? Didn’t you get one for Vye?”

The group glanced at Leo before turning their attention to Vye, Donatello flinching as he hadn’t even heard the approach despite her only sitting a couple of feet from where he rested. They then all looked to Casey as he spoke.

“Huh? Uh…Well, no.” The man scratched the back of his head. “I mean she’s an alien, right? How do we even know if she likes ice cream? And what if she’s like, allergic to it or somethin’?”

“She’s in a human body, Casey. She has human tastes.” Don explained. “And considering she’s got mostly April’s genetic make-up, it’s probably safe to say she won’t be lactose intolerant. In fact, she already drinks milk back in the lair.”

The girl in question was far too distracted staring at the bowl in the turtle’s hand to contribute to the conversation. Sensing the gaze, Donatello turned his head back to face her, dipping his spoon into a corner of the bowl before offering it out towards her. As the spoon edged closer to her face, Vye leaned back slightly until it stopped. Taking a moment to observe the offering, she gave it a very light sniff before cautiously biting onto the scoop. With a sharp exhale, she leaned back again, putting her hand up to cover her mouth. It was incredibly cold, but not in a bad way. The sudden cool air filled the girl’s mouth and was soon replaced by the sweet aftertaste, causing her cheeks to flush a light pink and her eyes to widen slightly. 

“See? She’s fine.” 

“I think she likes it!” Mikey chuckled.

Vye snapped her attention to Michelangelo when he spoke, causing him to freeze as he caught her gaze staring him down. He began to slowly edge away as he watched the girl clamber out of the back of the truck and trot towards him, her eyes tracking the movement of his bowl as he held it high above his head.

“Uh-Uh, no dice! No!” He cried. “This is for winners only - a.k.a ME!”

“Please?” She tilted her head slightly, not taking her eyes off the bowl.

“No!”

Vye puffed out her cheek a little. She knew she’d used the word correctly and yet he still refused. Hearing a small chuckle from behind her, she turned around to direct her attention elsewhere, only to this time have her face met with a rough green palm.

“No way, kid.” Raphael voiced, holding the small girls head back far enough to keep her arms from reaching his own ice cream.

As the redhead moaned and gently flailed her arms towards his brother, Leonardo took a step back, expecting to be the next target.

“Casey, maybe you should get Vye her own ice cream.”

“Okay okay, I’m on it.” 

Casey let out an amused laugh as he watched his friend fight off the girl for another moment before leaving the alley to go and retrieve more ice cream. As they waited, Vye continued to hover around the turtles, Michelangelo eventually retreating to the top of the van to keep his ice cream at a safe distance. Feeling there was only one way to momentarily tame the behaviour, Donatello took another small scoop out of his own bowl.

“Vye, come here.”

Almost like a dog being beckoned, the girl immediately trotted over and sat herself back on the bumper of the van, waiting patiently as another spoonful of ice cream was delivered to her mouth. The second wave of flavour was almost better than the first, her expression immediately calming and her legs beginning to kick lightly as she covered her mouth once again to muffle a satisfied whimper.

“There.” said Don, slightly relieved. 

The boys all seemed to relax a little seeing the situation simmered, allowing them to go back to finishing their individual desserts in peace before they began to melt any further. 

The calm moment wasn’t to last, as a loud boom suddenly echoed through the streets and into the alleys, causing the boys to almost drop their bowls - Vye immediately recoiling. Michelangelo quickly got to his feet, remaining on the roof of the Battle Shell and looking up into the sky as he began to see small trails of smoke from above the building tops.

“What was that?!”

“It sounded like an explosion.” Donatello answered, putting his bowl down carefully before hopping off the truck bumper. “And not too far away.”

Leonardo frowned as he pondered for a moment. He promised Master Splinter they wouldn’t get up to mischief, but...this wasn’t mischief. Innocent people could be in danger. Realizing time was of the essence, he made a decision quickly.

“We should check it out.”

Piling their bowls together on the ground unusually neatly, the four turtles began to group up, Donatello quickly jumping back into the truck to grab his usual duffle bag while Leonardo ushered Vye further inside, closing over one of the doors. His usual tone of voice became more stern as he spoke, his expression tense.

“Vye, you stay here and wait for Casey to get back, got it?” He instructed. “Don’t move from this spot.”

Vye, who had already shuffled back to cower behind the front seat, nodded nervously to acknowledge her understanding, only able to utter a mere “mhm” in response. Having grabbed his bag and put it over his shoulder, Donatello reached the rear of the truck again and briefly turned to face her.

“We won’t be long.” He assured, before hopping onto the ground and shutting over the second door with a gentle clutter.

Within seconds the four terrapins had made their way to the rooftops, clear out of view from the windows peered through by the girl they left behind.

  
  
  


Traversing across the rooftops of the surrounding buildings it took little time for the young ninja to reach the scene of the explosion, settling themselves on the edge of an apartment complex just across from where all the smoke and debris seemed to be originating from. Donatello pulled a pair of high-tech binoculars out of his duffle bag and began to examine the area below. 

“What are we looking at, Don?” Leo enquired.

“It’s hard to say, it looks like the building that blew was an abandoned one.” Answered Don as he lowered his binoculars. “It’s possible it was just some old faulty wiring or a gas leak, but…hard to know for sure.”

“Don’t you guys think it’s a bit weird there’s virtually no people runnin’ around down there?” Raphael added, gesturing towards the clearly empty street below.

Leo held his chin in his hand for a moment, narrowing his eyes as he absorbed the information relayed by his brothers. 

“Weird, maybe...But it makes things easier for us.” The leader hopped onto the ledge, looking down at the embers below. “Let’s go.” 

After he jumped to make his way down to street level, his brothers promptly followed his lead. They took a moment to hide themselves in the shadows, double-checking the street was completely clear before emerging and walking towards the old building that was purged with flames. Raphael was right, all that could be seen or heard was the crackling of the fires around them. Donatello looked up at the building in question, pointing up at it.

“Definitely abandoned. See how worn that sign is?” 

“Where _are_ all the people though? It’s kinda creepy.” Michelangelo said as he looked up and down the other side of the street.

“Well…It might not actually be that unusual.” Donatello turned around to follow his brother’s line of view, placing his hands on his hips. “Most of the stores on this street have all shut down, and have been for quite a while. The only people who probably come down here are the residents of those apartment buildings, and at this time of night the majority of them will be inside.”

“So...If there is a culprit, it wasn’t designed to hurt anyone.” Leo surmised.

“Most likely.”

Raph, who had been keeping his hands close to the handle of his Sai the whole time, dropped his arms by his sides.

“What’s the deal, then?”

“As I said-” Don grunted, attempting to move a collapsed beam from one of the smashed windows with assistance from Leo. “It’s probably just an old building fault.”

With the beam moved, he covered his mouth and carefully made his way inside, avoiding any of the remaining flames still blazing. Leo followed suit, leaving Mikey and Raph to cautiously look around the debris outside trying to find any clues. After kicking over what felt like a hundred pieces of wood, Mikey caught a glimpse of something by one of his feet.

“Ruh-Roh.”

Raphael moved to stand beside him, looking at the same object.

“Well that sure looks like a bomb t’me.” He looked over his shoulder to holler towards the building as Mikey anxiously tapped at the supposed explosive with his toes. “Yo, Leo! Don! Come look at this, will ‘ya?”

After hearing the call, the pair inside the building promptly made their way to meet with their brothers, Don crouching down to look at the small burnt remains of a device.

“You’re right, it’s a timer bomb. Not a very powerful one though.”

“So someone did blow it up.” Leo folded his arms.

Raph placed his hands on his hips, frowning.

“I still say this is weird. Why commit arson on an empty buildin’ on a street with nobody on it?”

Picking up the bomb with one hand to examine it, Don got to his feet, scratching his cheek with the other hand.

“Hm…”

“Hey, you don’t think it’s a trap or something do you?” Mikey brought his hand up to chew on the tips of his fingers anxiously.

“If it were a trap, we probably would have triggered a reaction by now, don’t you think?” Don replied, continuing to look at the bomb remains in his grasp.

Leonardo looked over at the burning building, narrowing his eyes as he began to feel an unease.

“They’re right though...Something doesn’t quite add up.”

  
  
  


In the dark of the night the two bedraggled men went by almost unnoticed as they ran down the nearly empty streets. It sounded like the bomb had gone off without a hitch, but now they were running late to their destination.

“Why’d you have to take so long plantin’ the thing?! Freddy’s not gonna be happy!” One of them snarled. “The car’s halfway across town.”

“Calm down, we’re gonna make it!”

Their feet pounded the ground harshley as they ran. As they passed a particular alleyway, one of them reversed slowly to do a double-take as something of interest came into view. The alley was dark but he could just about make out the silhouette of a truck. A large one.

“Yo! Check this out.” He beckoned his partner to look.

“So what? It’s a stinkin’ truck, let’s get goin’!”

The taller of the two walked up to the vehicle and gave it a slight pat, moving his hand along the side as he inspected the size.

“Just think of how much loot we could fit in this baby, though.” He peered around the back, seeing the rear doors slightly ajar. “Looks fair game to me.”

“Do we really got time for this?”

“Hey, just think of how happy Freddy’ll be with us when he sees we took initiative!” He tapped on the door lightly. “Chuck the money in here, and if the cops catch the truck, it’ll get traced back to this bozo!”

The other thug crossed his arms as he thought for a moment. His friend was persuasive. A grin formed on his face as he nodded and grabbed the handle to the other rear door, his partner chuckling as they both proceeded to pry both doors open. As they got inside, one of them whistled.

“Woah, this ain’t no ordinary truck.”

The taller man made his way to the driver’s seat with little hesitation, checking the ignition. After confirming the vehicle was all good to go, their partner in crime sauntered over to take his own place in the passenger seat, when he found his path blocked by a small bundle hidden just under the dashboard. He took a step back to get a better look, and grunted at the sight. The small redhead had tucked herself away to the best of her ability, arms tightly wrapped around her knees and the hood of her top pulled snug over her head. Upon being spotted, she flinched and trembled slightly as she tried to shuffle further back.

“Well look what we have here.” the thug grinned. “Looks like we got us a bargaining chip, too.”

Approving of his friend’s thinking, the tall delinquent laughed. The reaction caused the girl’s eyes to widen, beginning to pull down on her hood as he started up the engine and began to drive the van out of the alley into the streets, the large wheels screeching as they swerved around the corner. Only catching the tail end of the sound in the distance, Casey walked back into the alley, ice cream bowls in hand.

“Yo, I got Master Splinter’s shake too, but all they had left was vanilla and-” His voice trailed off as he noticed the Battle Shell nor his friends were anywhere to be seen. “Uh...Guys?”

Looking around, he called out once more only to be met with silence and his own voice reverbing throughout the now abandoned alleyway.

  
  


The flames at the scene of the explosion continued to flicker, being pushed around by the occasional gust of wind. Feeling he was getting no more clues from it, Donatello put the bomb remains in his duffle bag. He thought to himself as he saw the unified confusion in his brothers’ expressions. They had the right to be perplexed, nothing of the situation made much sense. Raphael threw his arms in the air, beginning to lose his patience with no bad guys around to punch. 

“It’s probably just some stupid kids doin’ vandalism or somethin’.” He gestured down the street with his thumb. “I say we book it.”

Donatello shook his head slightly.

“That would make sense if it was fireworks, or even something like a petrol bomb, but...They used a pipe bomb set up with a timer. Even if it is somewhat simplistic, why go through that effort just for some vandalism?”

Leonardo, who had been looking at the ground in thought during this time, suddenly looked up at them.

“...What if it’s a distraction?”

_Bing! Bing! Bing!_

The beeping coming from Donatello’s waistband caught them all off guard, the turtle in question reaching in to grab his shell cell and hold it to his face.

“Hello?”

“A distraction from what?” Michelangelo asked Leo, only to be shushed immediately by Don.

“Shhh.” He hushed before returning his attention to the call. “Sorry, Casey. What did you say?”

_“Where’d you guys run off to?!”_

“Oh, there was an explosion down the road so we just came to investigate.”

_“Okay, but did you have to go and take the truck too? What am I supposed to do?”_

“Wait- What are you talking about? We didn’t take the Battle Shell.”

The other three turtles all exchanged looks on hearing that one line, quickly honing their attention in on their brother’s call.

_“Well it sure as heck ain’t here anymore!”_

“What is it, Don?” Leo enquired, beginning to look a bit more tense. His brother covered the receiver to his cell as he replied.

“Uh...The Battle Shell is gone.”

“Gone? Whaddya mean GONE?” Raphael raised his voice slightly, watching Leo take the cell from Donatello as he reached around inside his duffle bag frantically.

Trying to keep his tone calm, Leonardo took over the call.

“Casey, what’s going on?”

As their friend relayed the limited details a second time, Donatello pulled a small electronic pad out of his bag and began to tap at the screen. 

“Hey, guys...Casey’s right.” He started. “The truck’s heading uptown.”

Raph let out a short grunt before clenching his fist.

“That little brat stole our ride!”

“Raph, Vye can barely use a microwave, how would she drive an eight-ton-”

He paused, realising what he just said. Catching on, Michelangelo raised his voice in sudden panic.

“Vye’s still in the Battle Shell!”

Before the group could react any further, red and blue lights began to pulse off the surrounding walls, sirens blaring in the distance. The authorities had finally begun to close in on the scene. Leonardo narrowed his eyes, speaking into the cell once more and loud enough to be heard over the sudden commotion.

“Either way, we need to move.” He ordered. “Casey, we’ll call you once we figure out where the truck’s going.”

_“Ah sure, it ain’t like I got anythin’ better to do!”_

Ignoring the sarcastic comment, the turtle slammed the cell closed and tossed it to Donatello, exchanging a nod with each of the others as they all leapt off towards one of the nearby rooftops, the emergency vehicles screaming to a halt in the places they had previously stood.

  
  


The rear of the Battle Shell rocked vigorously as the vigilantes power-drove it down the less occupied streets. Vye sat on the floor up against the wall, arms now bound behind her back and her mouth silenced by a large strip of tape that the pair had brought in preparation. She’d long stopped attempting to make noise, though the tightness of her throat still made it difficult to do so regardless. 

Once in a while the pair at the front would laugh, causing her to shift her glance over in a feared attempt at listening in on their conversation. Had they even said where they were going? She had no idea. So much uncertainty had begun to overwhelm her mind that she could barely bring herself to put up any more of a struggle as she continued to get swayed from side to side. This paralyzing fear she felt, it was almost identical to the fear she experienced as Dash. Did all humans get this way? April and Casey never appeared to, but then...did that mean that the fear was just, at its core, purely down to her? 

The train of thought racing through the girls brain was suddenly halted by a harsh swerving of the truck creating enough force to knock her onto her side, her head hitting the floor with a loud bang followed by a small muffled whine escaping her lips.

“Dude, watch it! I told ‘ya I should’ve been the one to drive!” One of the con men cried.

“It’s fine, look.” The driver responded, slowing down the pace of the vehicle to a stop. “We’re here.”

Momentarily distracted by the pain pulsing in the side of her head, Vye failed to hear the confirmation of their arrival, causing her to flinch when a pair of large muddied boots appeared in front of her vision. Her gaze moved up enough to catch a large hand reaching out to her, which then forcefully pulled her head slightly upright as the man attached to it crouched down to be closer to her level.

“Alright, girly. Here’s where you come in.”

The four ninja turtles traversed swiftly across the rooftops of the buildings around them as they made their way uptown, Raphael hollering at Donatello from a distance as they leapt across the wider gaps.

“I can’t believe y’just left it wide open like that! You’re supposed to be the smart one!”

Landing on his feet, Donatello turned around at the accusation.

“Hey, come on, don’t blame me. Besides, I wouldn’t have believed Casey would be capable of losing the entire Battle Shell!”

There was a slight pause as Raphael became level with him, folding his arms.

“...I could believe that.”

“...Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Having already made his way to the opposite side of the rooftop, Michelangelo hopped up and down impatiently, waving and pointing his arms to grab the attention of his brothers.

“C’mon guys, we gotta get moving!”

Leonardo finally landed, walking to join Donatello and Raphael where they stood.

“Where is it now?” He asked, prompting Don to pull out his tracker once again and inspect it.

“It looks like it’s slowing down...It must be pulling in just past that complex right over there.”

Without delay, the group made their way towards the rooftop that had been pointed out to them and positioned themselves just on the edge so they could get a better look without risk of being seen. Donatello was right, the truck had come to a standstill just outside the building across the street, and it also appeared to be unoccupied with the rear doors left wide open. Trying to size up the situation, it wasn’t until their combined line of sight caught the signs just above the entrance to the facility that they finally realized what was happening below.

“Good old fashioned bank robbery, huh? Figures.” Raphael sneered. 

“Looks like it.” Leonardo confirmed before turning his head to Donatello. “Don, can you see what’s going on in there?”

Donatello, who had already taken the initiative to look through his binoculars, shook his head as he lowered them.

“Unfortunately, no. We’ll need to get closer.”

About to direct everyone to move, Leo stopped as he noticed one of his brothers had already gone ahead, tiptoeing towards the vehicle they came to retrieve. This was quickly brought to everyone’s attention and the three remaining turtles on the roof let out one loud whisper.

“ _Mikey-!_ ”

After watching their over-eager sibling check the back of the truck to confirm that it was indeed empty - signaled by a cross formation with his arms - the trio sighed and hopped down to street level, promptly grabbing him as they all moved to hide themselves in the shadows just above the signs and windows of the bank. Once they reached position, the orange masked turtle received a small smack on the back of the head from Raphael for his previous foolhardy actions. Mikey winced and looked as if he was about to snap back when he was silenced by a shushing gesture from Leo, who then pointed towards one of the windows to redirect the pair’s attention. 

They all carefully peered inside, trying their best to remain hidden as they did so. Scanning the room they noticed a small selection of civilians, along with only three culprits...and one of them was holding a familiar figure with amber hair.

“They’ve got Vye-!” Mikey exclaimed, at his best attempt at remaining quiet.

“Shhh!” Leo hushed once more.

“They must be using her as leverage.” Don said, frowning slightly.

Raph’s gaze became more of a glare, eyeing up the thugs before shifting his weight until he was upright again, clutching his fist tightly.

“I reckon it’s about time we kick some serious shell.” 

His brothers followed his lead in lifting themselves further back into the shadows, Leonardo placing his hand on the clenched fist in an attempt to lower it as he spoke in further hushed tones.

“There are innocent people in there, we can’t just run in. We’ve got to do this quick, without casualties, and without being seen.”

Slightly irritated that his energy was being dampened, Raph tutted before lowering his fist on his own, waiting on their fearless leader as he leaned down to examine the scene once more. He couldn’t make out anything being said, but the largely built man holding Vye had pushed her away, seemingly forcing her to sit with a small group of other people that were beginning to get tied up by one of the other goons as he started yelling at someone behind the teller counter. Seeing enough to give him an idea, he rose again, turning his head to his brothers and pointing at them individually as he gave out his instructions.

“Alright.” He began. “Don and I will take care of the security cameras. Raph, when I give the signal, that’s when you go in and take out the robbers.”

“With pleasure.” Raphael grinned, cracking his knuckles.

“And Mikey…” Leo looked at his remaining brother. “You do what you do best.”

Michelangelo also grinned, though much more mischievously.

“Distraction?”

“Distraction.”

  
  


The ringleader of the delinquents inside the bank continued to point his gun at the cowering man behind the teller, yelling at him to open the nearby vault. Meanwhile on the floor, Vye sat with the other tied up hostages, lacking the energy to look up. She occasionally glanced back towards the goon behind the group to keep tabs on him, but overall there was seemingly little else to be done. _Was_ there anything she could do? She searched her brain frantically. Should she change her form and escape? No, if she did that then she would be exposed in a number of ways. It had also been a few weeks at least since she last did any sort of shapeshifting and there was no telling exactly how well it would go, it would probably just make things worse. Her shoulders slumped forward and she closed her eyes, trying to tune out the gruff yelling and frightened whimpers around her. It was no use, she couldn’t block it out. 

Suddenly, Vye lifted her head as she heard something. A clatter. She looked behind her again towards the back of the room, but there was nothing there. Did she imagine it? No one else seemed to react, though that could have been due to the intensity of the situation clouding all their senses. Looking back towards the teller again she saw the man attempting to open a large door with trembling fingers. What were these other humans wanting from there so badly to warrant using such excessive means? She couldn’t figure it out, though that was largely to do with her not really knowing where she was, and what a Bank actually functioned for in the first place. 

“Hurry it up, man!” The thug growled, moving his gun closer to the tell.

“I-I’m sorry, I-”

The pair were interrupted by a small knock. There was a brief pause before another one was heard, and the thug turned around as he located the source to be from behind, Vye’s line of sight also following as she heard the noise. Due to the lighting from indoors contrasting with the outside, all that could be seen out of the doorway was a large block of a silhouette. The robber’s allies grouped together with him, aiming their weapons out of the large opening as a beckoning call rang through.

“Special delivery!”

Vye’s eyes widened slightly. The raspy voice was familiar.

“We didn’t order nothin’! Now beat it-!”

Before the thug could continue his threat, a loud intense horn sounded followed by a burst of blinding light filling up the entire room. The trio of bandits winced and shielded their eyes, along with the hostages who also had to look away. Vye tried her best to squint at the light, just barely making out a dark figure walk to stand in front of it, appearing to crack their knuckles, before having to also retreat her gaze in favour of her burning retinas. 

“That’s too bad.” The horn finally stopped to reveal another familiar, more surly voice from the figure. “Because we got a whole lot of butt-whoopin’ with your names on it.”

Finally having had the go-ahead from his brothers, Raphael made a swing for the blinded leader, grabbing the flailing gun with his free hand to release it from the thug’s grasp. Dodging the visually impaired allies’ clumsy attempts at charging towards him, he ducked low to sweep his feet under the trio, bringing them all collapsing to the floor with a thud, catching the remaining weapons as they were dropped. 

From behind her Vye made out the sound of feet hitting the floor as Leonardo had joined the scene, using his katana to carefully but swiftly cut the ties around each of the hostages allowing them to be freed. The ties on the redhead’s wrists came last, and before she could get a chance to nurse them she felt her weight shift as she was hoisted over someone’s shoulder, causing her to let out a surprised yelp, still muffled by the tape over her mouth.

“Alright, I’ve got her. Let’s go.” Leo called out.

The lighting in the room gradually began to dim slightly as the large truck outside the doorway reversed and began to turn, allowing Vye to open her eyes just barely. The three robbers were now huddled together on the floor, tied up with the remains of their own tape - along with their weapons. The view didn’t last long as the body underneath her moved, Leo making a dash along with Raph for the back of the truck as it began to slowly pull away, Donatello calling out to them from the door. 

“Come on!”

Once they safely landed inside, Don closed the two doors firmly behind them, making sure they were secure. The group stumbled as the van made a sharp turn, Raphael grabbing onto one of the nearby chairs for balance.

“Geez, ease up there, Mikey!” He shouted towards the front.

“Hey, I thought I was the distraction, not the get-away driver!”

After a couple more destabilizing bumps, Leo kneeled down to let Vye off his shoulder onto her feet. Spotting the tape still on her mouth, he carefully but quickly peeled it away, allowing her to let out a small relieved gasp of relief before rubbing the new unexpected pain surrounding her lips.

“Are you oka-”

The turtle barely finished his sentence before he was pushed back slightly by the force of arms suddenly wrapping around his torso, the girl burying her face into his chest as her whole body began to tremble.

“Ah geez.” Raphael sighed, scratching the back of his head.

Leonardo’s arms remained elevated awkwardly for a moment before he lowered them to rest on the girls back. Tears had started trickling down her cheeks as she hiccupped and sobbed, unable to make any other sounds. Vye had read about the human expression of crying, but she had no idea how disgusting and snotty it was. All the same, she couldn’t seem to stop the combustion of her pent up fear and anxiety releasing out of her body and held her position gripping onto the fearless leader, who spoke softly as he lightly patted her back.

“It’s alright, you’re safe now.”

Donatello and Raphael watched with mild sympathy, the more gentle of the two moving from the doors to carefully place his hand on the girl’s head.

“We’re sorry for leaving you the way we did. It probably wasn’t the best idea to leave you alone on your first trip to the surface. It must’ve been scary.”

The head beneath his hand shuffled slightly in what seemed like a hesitant nod. This made him feel slightly guilty, after all, he was the one to make the final call on whether or not she should even go with them in the first place. Meanwhile, in the driver’s seat, Michelangelo occasionally glanced towards the group at the back of the van, beginning to get more uncomfortable with the muffled weeping he could hear coming from there. Vye hadn’t exactly shown much in the way of emotion since she changed into her human body, but it was the first time they’d seen or heard her cry, and he didn’t much care for it. He cheerily raised his voice in the hope of lightening the mood.

“Hey! Who wants some tunes?”

“Not now, Mikey-” Donatello began to scold half-heartedly, until he was interrupted by his shell cell ringing from his duffle bag.

He removed his hand from the girl’s head, causing her to lift it slightly, and turned away as he answered.

“Hello?”

_“Guys it’s been like half an hour, what’s the deal?!”_

“...Oh. Casey.” The turtle realized, scratching his cheek. “Sorry, I guess we forgot to call you.”

_“You ‘guess’? What am I, chopped liver?!”_

Raphael, hearing the muffled tone of Casey’s yelling from where he sat, brought his palm to his forehead. Donatello continued.

“We’ve got Vye and the Battle Shell, so we’ll make our way back to you, just wait there.”

He then hung up the call without waiting for a response, knowing it would most likely just be more complaining, before turning back to his brothers, one of which still being embraced by their smaller alien companion. Her sniffling seemed to have dwindled a bit, though she appeared hesitant to let go. Raph leaned forward in his seat, using his elbows to rest his weight on his legs.

“I say we make Case buy a second round of ice cream when we get there. He owes us after losin’ a truck this big.”

Picking up on one word in particular, Vye lifted her head to look over at the usually more irritable turtle, the skin around her eyes blotchy and reddened.

“Sweet! Second victory dessert!” Mikey cheered from the front of the vehicle, punching the air with one fist.

“Come on, Mikey, even you don’t have a sweet tooth that big.” Don commented.

“Oh _yeah_? What about the time I had that whooole birthday cake all to myself, huh?!”

Raphael grimaced, sitting himself up slightly.

“Ugh, I forgot about that year.”

“Gross.” Leonardo and Donatello added in unison, looking equally disgusted as they recalled the memory.

Mildly distracted by the onset banter, Vye stood back from Leo, moving her hands away to wipe across her face with her sleeves. She was surprised by how wet her features had become, not to mention the excessive dribbling from her nose that was seemingly never ending. Her mouth now also had an incredibly salty taste filling it along with her throat remaining slightly tight, which made her all the more eager towards Raphael’s ice cream suggestion.

“Thank you.” She croaked, causing the turtles to look at her. “For saving me…”

Leonardo smiled a bit as he gently patted her shoulder.

“Anytime.”

“Yeah,” Raph smirked slightly, leaning forward again. “Though don’t make it a habit of gettin’ kidnapped.”

Not fully registering the humour behind his words, the girl nodded as she looked at him, wiping under her nose. Noticing her attitude begin to perk up slightly, Michelangelo yammered loudly from the front seat, waving one of his arms about to try and grab her attention.

“Hey Vye! Didya see my distraction? Neat trick with the headlights, huh?”

“...It hurt my eyes.”

The turtle’s arm drooped for a moment before he lifted it again, picking himself back up.

“Uh, well, it was still pretty creative, right? What about the horn?”

“It hurt my ears too.”

His brothers began to snigger to themselves as his arm drooped again, moving it back onto the steering wheel in a pout and feeling disappointed his plan hadn’t been nearly as impressive as he thought it was. 

Before long the crew had regrouped with a half-apologetic Casey, who only conceded in buying Vye alone two bowls of ice cream - much to Michelangelo’s chagrin - as well as a new dessert shake for Master Splinter considering the previous one had long lost its thickness. On the journey home Donatello regained his position in the driver’s seat and his pouting brother joined him in the passenger seat, occasionally shooting envious glances at their amber-haired friend as she stared indecisively at the two bowls of ice cream in her hands - despite the multiple warnings she received from the others that they would both eventually melt. It had been a rather nerve-wracking evening, but perhaps the gift of both desserts would just about make up for it.

  
  



End file.
